Jurassic Park: Demons of the Future
by Anguirus111
Summary: After the Jurassic Park incident, the workers on Isla Sorna are left to fend for themselves on an island full of dinosaurs. But will they succeed or will they fail to prevent the dinos from taking over once more?
1. The Calm before the Storm

Anguirus111 Note: This is the prequel to Jurassic Park: Demons of the Past and chronicles the six month time period between when Nublar fell and when Sorna fell. I seem to be alone in my depiction of the scientist side of things, which surprises me since I find it more interesting to hear their side of the story then just the reactions of those who just witnessed the end results.

Sorna: "Hey! Henry!" Jake shouted after him. "We'll be fine, trust me."

Henry nodded solemnly and left Jake's office. Jake went back to his work, but could barely turn two pages before he got disgusted and tossed the thing onto his desk amongst the other paperwork. Sighing he rubbed his eyes before laying his head down on the desk. He didn't need this now in his life, Sorna was enough of a headache as it was, with the dinosaurs beginning to constantly wear down on his psyche, since Jeffrey had been killed. Their constant roaring day in and day out was driving everyone nuts and it hurt to look at a baby velociraptor or other baby carnivore and know what it could potentially do in the future. Then there was the fact that Jurassic Park, Site B, and Indigo had gone severally over-budget and the Park hadn't even been fully furnished yet. Ingen needed Jurassic Park to be a financial success because its other assets wouldn't be able to make up for its failure. Now it looked like fate, or was it chaos, had intervened and doomed them all. Ingen would never be able to recover from this, Jake knew it.

"_Great, yet another thing I have to blame these bastards for_," thought Jake angrily. He shoved back from his desk and decided to take a walk through the building to see what everyone else's reactions before Hammond arrived and hopefully gave them some reassuring information about their professional future. He walked down a pair of hallways and looked into people's offices. Some looked just as solemn as he had been while others were hurriedly talking on a phone. Still others hadn't heard the news and Jake envied them until they'd eventually find out. Some began to look at him questioningly, but he waved them off because he certainly didn't have any answers for them, only John would. Jake proceeded to the main auditorium where all the scientists usually gathered to hear announcements of future projects and recent DNA acquisitions. Now it would be used, not to learn about the past, but to learn about the future. Jake walked up to the podium and tapped it as some scientists began filing in. Jake pressed a button that cued into every speaker on the entire island.

"Attention everyone, if you are within the workers village and aren't doing anything important right now, please congregate in the main auditorium because Mr. Hammond is going to tell us where we stand right now. And if you don't what that means, let me be the first to tell you, Nublar fell to the dinosaurs. They overcame their protective barriers and killed at least four people before Hammond and his guests evacuated the park. We don't anything more than that, so hopefully Hammond will give us something good to work with. Oh yeah, if you're out in the island somewhere, it's on Sorna Network Channel 4," said Jake. More people began flooding into the room and then it was all full, but still more people flooded in until the room was jam packed. Henry joined Jake on the stage and they looked down at the fear and trepidation in the people's faces. Jake sighed and began drumming his fingers on the top of the podium in boredom. Some people looked at him and were about to ask something when Jake cut them off.

"Look I told you all I know," said Jake. "And I didn't bother to check Ingen's stock either so I can't tell you how well that's doing either."

"Hammond should be here in a few moments," said Henry trying to boost the otherwise sagging spirits, it didn't work. Several moments passed in awkward silence.

"Anybody know a good joke?" Jake asked finally. A nervous ripple emanated from the audience. More silence passed.

"So why aren't you people working?" Jake asked before immediately regretting asking it.

"What's the point?" someone shouted.

"Yeah," said someone else. "Nublar's gone, now where are all these specimens supposed to go?"

"I don't know," admitted Jake. "But if worse comes to worse we could always use either Indigo or the amphitheatre back in San Diego."

An uproar emerged from the crowd and many people began yelling at once.

"That amphitheatre is hardly built!"

"I'm not going to let those things have the chance to get loose on the general populus!"

"Indigo can't be converted to a new JP!"

Jake groaned and rolled his eyes as the crowd began yelling at each other over what the future would hold.

"This is a harbinger Henry, a harbinger of things to come," said Jake.

"You said we'd be fine," said Henry with a grin. Jake slumped down on the podium defeated.

"Johnny boy had better show up soon and give us some good news or mass hysteria is going to overtake this island," said Jake.

"Carpe diem Jake," said Henry. "Carpe diem."

"Screw that!" Jake shot back. "I never wanted to be a leader, I was content just doing what was needed to be done. I can't take control of this situation Henry, I just can't, it's just too out of control."

"Yeah but-," began Henry when suddenly a rhythmic thumping was heard. The crowd eventually heard it to and an eerie and immediate silence descended on the group. The helicopter got nearer and nearer until finally it was right over it and then it stopped.

"Now remember," said Jake. "No questions, no retorts, and no remarks until Mr. Hammond has completed his speech. Got that?"

A rumble of agreement emerged from the crowd. Right as it ended, John Hammond entered onto the stage still decked out in his white outfit that he had been wearing on Nublar when it had fallen. He was leaning heavily on his cane and had a shell shocked and distant look that instantly sent shivers down everyone's backs as they tried to figure just what he had seen on Nublar.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Ingen's CEO and our founder, Mr. John Hammond," said Jake stepping away. Clapping, that seemed more formal than for admiration, was heard and John Hammond briefly nodded before taking the podium. Instead of saying anything, he just stood their with that same shell shocked look on his face. Several moments passed upon which the awkwardness of the room grew greater and greater. Henry finally prodded Jake and Jake sighed, nodded, and walked over to the silent CEO.

"John," said Jake. Hammond suddenly snapped to attention and finally looked around at the crowd. He visibly cleared his throat and the crowd began to lean forward as if sharing a secret.

"Ingen will survive this. Somehow it will survive, we will all survive. Life will find a way," said Hammond. And then he walked off leaving everyone wide-eyed. Right before the room dissolved into mass hysteria, Jake threw up his hand to calm them down and chased after Hammond with Henry.

"John, what's going on?" demanded Jake.

"Yeah, that's not enough information to go on," said Henry.

"It's all I have I'm sorry," said Hammond with tears in his eyes. "It's gone, it's all gone."

"What's gone?" Jake asked. Hammond whirled to face them.

"Everything! The park, Ingen, my dream, they're all gone!" he shouted madly. With that the left the two and ascended the steps to the helipad. A couple moments later the helicopter roared off into the distance leaving a shocked Henry Wu and Jake Whitacre. Jake braced himself against a wall and just stared straight off into space, while Henry just tried to wrap his mind around the past two hours and how quickly things had changed.

"What do we do?" asked Henry finally. Jake just shook his head.

"I don't know Henry, I just don't know," said Jake. "We don't have a contingency plan for this sort of situation."

"So make one," suggested Henry.

"I can't," said Jake. "I'm in the same boat that they are. I don't know what future holds."

"Well at least talk to them," pleaded Henry. "Reassure them, something, because otherwise they may all loose it. I'll try and help out as well for as long as Hammond lets me stay here. Until then, we have to prevent this island from slipping into pandemonium."

"Oh God help us all," said Jake shaking his head as they headed back to the stage. They emerged and looked at the silent and solemn faces of the people below them.

"So what now?" someone asked for all of them. Jake looked at them all several times over.

"We do what we've always done, our jobs. We make dinosaurs, that's what we know how to do, and that's what we get paid for. Ingen _can_ still recover from this, I do believe that. But if things fall apart here, you can kiss that and your jobs good bye. So tomorrow, wake up, stretch, exercise if you want to, but above all go back to work. In the meantime I have got to go to Indigo, can I rest assured that you will not all go nuts for the week or two that I'm away?" asked Jake worried. There were some soft mutters as assent.

"Tell you what Jake, why don't I go?" Henry suggested. "You know more about this island that I ever will. I'll go and appraise them of our current situation while you keep the ball rolling here."

"Thanks Henry," Jake said grateful. "Alright then no worries, okay everyone? We'll be fine, we will survive this. If the dinos can survive 65 million years of extinction, I think we can survive a few months."

A nervous laughter erupted from the crowd and they slowly began filing out.

"Well that's one bullet we've dodged, one of many I suspect are going to pop up before this is all settled," said Jake leaving the auditorium.

"Please," Henry said. "This'll be easier than high school at the very least."

"Yeah but back they would we same the same thing about now?" asked Jake incredulously.

"Sure," said Henry with a grin. "Why not, we never backed down from a challenge back then."

"You always were a nerd," said Jake smiling.

"A nerd isn't an element," Henry shot back. "So I wouldn't know what you're talking about."

"Touché," said Jake laughing. "Now where's my anatomy book so I can smack you upside the head with it?"

The two emerged into the open and walked down the street.

"So where're we going?" asked Henry confused.

"We've got to get you to the helipad so that you can take a copter to Indigo," said Jake.

"Now?" said Henry disappointed. "I was hoping to stay awhile and reacquaint myself with the place since it'll be my new home apparently."

"We'll have plenty of time to deal with that later," said Jake. "Right now Indigo needs the same speech that I gave over here or it might very well fall apart."

The two approached the parking garage with a makeshift sign above it reading: Jurassic Parks.

"He, he he," laughed Jake.

"That is so lame," said Henry rolling his eyes. "How can you get a kick out of that?"

"I put it up there," said Jake shrugging. "Why shouldn't I find it hilarious?"

"Alright," said Henry defeated. The two entered into the garage where several mechanics were hard at work fixing some of the various worker vehicles and discussing the day's events. Some of them nodded at Jake and he just nodded back as the two proceeded into the garage.

"Hey Henry," said Jake with a big grin. "Check this baby out."

Jake walked over to a tarp that was covering a vehicle and pulled it back to reveal a partially converted V-8 Interceptor from a '74 XB Ford Falcon. Henry grinned.

"So this is what she looks like," said Henry placing his hands on the slick exterior. "No wonder you kept talking about it enthusiastically over the phone, the pictures you sent me don't do it justice."

"I told you back during freshman year of college that I would one day own this car and I'm well on my way to making that dream a reality," said Jake leaning on the thing. Henry nodded.

"So how fast is she?" Henry asked looking at the partially constructed supercharger poking out of the hood.

"Like I keep telling you, speed is just a question of money," began Jake.

"How fast can you go," Henry finished, he'd heard it plenty of times before. "You don't know do you?"

"One day I will," said Jake. "When she was just the Falcon, I hit 90 on the only decent straightaway we have on this island, but had to immediately slow down. With the supercharger, she should be able to at least hit 120 on that same stretch if not faster."

"Well good luck with that," said Henry. "So how're we going to get to the helipad?"

"In style," was all Jake said. Henry looked at him confused as a pair of Jurassic Park Tour Vehicles rolled by headed for the basement. Jake hopped onto the hood of one of them and Henry hopped on as well as it rolled down the ramp. A couple moments later, Jake got off followed by Henry amidst a ramp filled with nothing but Cadillacs.

"Ah yes, the infamous Hammond caddy fleet," said Henry impressed. "I guess you can't get more stylistic than this."

"Hop in," said Jake getting into one of them, that was a convertible with the top down. He produced a large series of keys on a key ring and stuck one in the ignition and turned it causing the engine to roar to life. Henry leaped in on the other side and the car roared off up the ramp and out onto the main street. It approached the open main gates and roared off away from the village.

"Aren't you worried a dino might get loose and storm through there and kill a bunch of people?" Henry asked. Jake shook his head as he held his arm out the window as the air rushed by overhead.

"The dinos don't hate us Henry," said Jake. "They have no reason to attack us so we have no reason to fear them nor they us."

"If you insist," said Henry. "But you of all people should realize the dangers dinos post to humans. Remember Jeffrey?"

The caddy screeched to a halt leaving an abrupt silence punctuated only by the occasional bird chirp or dino roar.

"I will never forget Jeffrey," said Jake coldly. "Nor what was done to him. That will never happen on this island as long as I live, I swear it. The dinos will die before any human dies."

"What about Dr. Gustavius Graves?" Henry asked. Jake started the car again and it took off down the road.

"That idiot got was coming to him. I told him dimetrodons were too dangerous to breed, but he didn't believe me. Then he went behind my back and bred them anyway and paid the ultimate price for it. His death was his own fault," said Jake. "Besides now we know what to watch out for on this island should the power ever fail."

"Yeah I guess so," said Henry distracted as the car roared between a pair of fences displaying hadrosaurs on one side and maiasaurs on the other.

"Despite your reservations Jake, I think these creatures are really something else," said Henry.

"They're assets Henry, nothing more nothing less," said Jake. "When they've outlived their usefulness, they'll be liquidated like everything else. But for the moment they're too important to Ingen's future to be gotten rid off. But their day will come one day Henry, their day will come."

"We'll see old friend, we'll see," said Henry. The car cruised for a few more minutes before stopping in front of Rupert's Deli.

"You hungry?" asked Jake. "I figured I'd hop in and get a quick snack."

"No, but stretching my legs a little couldn't hurt. Seeing Rupert again should also be a good kick," said Henry. Both got out and proceeded inside the deli/supermarket.

"Hey Rupert," said Jake as the two entered.

"Hey Jake," said Rupert doing some sweeping. "Oh hey Henry, long time no see. What brings you to B?"

"Got a new home, seems my last one got overrun by a nasty pest problem," said Henry.

"Yeah so it did, I heard about it on the radio and on the TV. Let me guess Jake, the usual right?" asked Rupert.

"Yeah," said Jake as he grabbed the latest copy of the New York Times. He opened it to the market section and looked up Ingen's stock as approached the counter.

"2.15," said Rupert. Jake waved him off to have it charged to his professional account as he slammed the paper down on the counter.

"Read and weep," said Jake pointing at the stock. "That's the last time it'll ever be that high for a long, long time."

"Yeah real piece of history," said Rupert picking it up. "You want me to have it framed for you, is that it?"

"Yeah," said Jake taking his candy and apple juice and heading back outside.

"Bye Rupert," said Jake. Henry nodded and left as well.

"Get a hobby!" shouted Rupert after them as the roar of an engine was heard and the car took off into the distance. Moments later it approached the helipad where helicopter was just about ready to take off. Both ran over to it and Jake yanked open the door.

"Hey Kev, got room for one more?" shouted Jake. Kevin Steele looked at them and shrugged.

"Knock yourself out," was all he said. Jake nodded and shut the door. He ran tot the back and opened it up to reveal several crates onboard.

"He's going straight to Indigo with these!" shouted Jake over the blades. "So I guess I'll see you around."

Henry threw out his hand.

"It was good seeing you again old buddy," said Henry.

"See you in a few weeks," said Jake. He grabbed his hand and both shook it.

"Everything will work out in the end, it always does!" shouted Henry. He wedged himself in amongst the crates and Jake slammed the door shut and tapped Kevin's window before running off. The helicopter rose into the sky and took off for Indigo as Jake watched it go.

"Well see old friend, we'll see," said Jake. He then got back in the Cadillac and took off away from the helipad.


	2. Demon Spark

Genetics Lab: The Cadillac roared to a halt in front of the building and Jake got out with a massive fern. He walked up the steps and into the building.

"Hi Jake," said the receptionist Stevie Sandelder. At just twenty-two years old, she was interning at Ingen for some extra cash and job experience.

"Hey Stevie, hard at work?" he asked with a grin. He walked over to the desk and leaned on the elevated counter. He looked down to see a crossword puzzle that was partially filled out. Jake sighed and shook his head.

"Don't you have homework you should be doing?" Jake asked.

"Oh, go away," said Stevie. Jake laughed and produced the fern.

"You asked me to pick this up…so I did," said Jake. "You know Stevie if you really want your greens I wouldn't recommend getting this way. Eat some vegetables, not ferns. Is this really part of your organic diet?"

"Quit teasing, you know it's not for me," Stevie shot back as she took the fern. Jake shrugged.

"I'm just saying," he said innocently. Stevie shot him an annoyed smile before placing the fern under her desk where a protoceratops that was resting their began chewing on it.

"Pets?" demanded Jake with mock horror. "Ingen has a strict 'no pet policy.'"

"Oh go get your candy from the machine and get out of here," Stevie retorted. Jake laughed and so did Stevie, they'd always had this conversation whenever he came into work and both of them eagerly anticipated their next argument.

"Ah but I already got candy from Rupert's so that stupid machine can't take my money," said Jake with an air of superiority.

"Don't you think with all the insanity as of late that the situation will be so screwed up that the machine will actually give you what you paid for?" Stevie asked. Jake thought about that one.

"Maybe it will," he admitted. "Maybe it will."

Jake walked over to the machine and put in his money and pressed the buttons for the particular piece of candy. The machine didn't do anything and when Jake pressed the change lever, no money came out and the counter read: 0.00.

"Dammit!" he shouted at the thing as Stevie laughed. "You should work you piece of junk!"

Jake kicked the thing and stopped hopping around from the pain as Stevie began laughing harder.

"Shut up!" he shouted at her.

"You shut up!" she shot back as Jake hobbled off.

"Hey Jake," she said seriously. Jake stopped and walked back.

"Yeah," he said.

"What's going to happen now that Jurassic Park's gone?" she asked worried.

"I don't know," Jake admitted. "I really don't know. All we can do now is hope for the best and if things are meant to work out they'll work out, if not it's for the best."

"I'm just worried is all," Stevie said. Jake waved that thought off.

"Don't worry about it we'll be fine. Worry is a waste of the imagination," said Jake before adding. "And you have the largest imagination I've ever seen. I'd even say you're a little exaggerated in your imagination."

"Hey!" said Stevie as Jake began chuckling. She took the stalk of the fern from her Steviesaurus and smacked Jake in the arm with it. Jake rubbed his arm and walked off grinning. Stevie sighed and went back to her crossword when the phone rang.

"Ingen, we make the future, this is Stephanie Sandelder speaking, how may I direct your call?" she said. "Alright, he just came in."

Stephanie pressed the hold button.

"Hey Jake!" she shouted back to him. "Telephone call!"

"I'll take it in my office!" Jake shouted back. Stephanie nodded and pressed the appropriate buttons on her phone as she continued with her crossword.

Jake meanwhile passed over the genetics bay below where the scientists were working on creating new dinosaur hatchlings, although not with the same fervor that they had had in the past. Jake sighed and shook it off as he pushed open the door and walked into his office. He threw off his jacket and pressed a button on his phone as he went to his water cooler and poured himself some water.

"Whitacre," he prompted as he took a sip.

"Hey Jake how's it going?" said the voice on the other line. Jake did a spit take as the voice laughed.

"Ha, ha," said the voice. Jake wiped his mouth clean before shaking his head.

"How the hell did you get this number?" he demanded.

"You know I have my sources," said the voice on the other end.

"Spies are more like it," said Jake.

"It's all in the details," said the voice. "But suffice to say I found out what happened."

"Called to gloat?" asked Jake.

"Not really," said the voice. "After all, Ingen never was a threat to Pacific Pharmaceuticals. They were interested in marketing the dinosaurs as sideshow attractions, not as medicinal substitutes. We were in completely different fields."

"Yeah I guess you're right," said Jake sitting down. "So how're things going John?"

"Decent," admitted Pacific Pharmaceuticals CEO John Brown. "We've got a few projects that are showing potential and should really reap in the rewards."

"So is this a courtesy call?" Jake asked reading through a portfolio on his desk.

"No," said John. "Ingen's going down the drains, jump clear and work for me. It'll be just like back in college where you and Henry followed my orders while doing those labs."

"We were underclassmen and you were an upperclassman, we had no choice. But as I told you before, no," said Jake. "Not yet at any rate. All in all this is a pretty good gig and it's all I really know at the moment. Should Ingen go down in flames, then I'll think about it."

"Alright," said John defeated. "Well at any rate you've always got a job here."

"What about Henry?" Jake prodded.

"Of course he has a job here as well," said John. "I could use both of you on my team."

"And Stevie?" Jake asked with a grin.

"God what is your obsession with that freshman?" demanded John.

"She's always been the nicest and most sincere person I've ever met since I had to tutor her in Econ all those years back," said Jake. "Hell I'm the one who got her the internship here."

"And why I don't know," admitted John. "But alright she can have a job here as well. Well I guess that's all I've got to say really. Anything you want to add?"

"Yeah, if things go sour for Ingen you'll let me know right?" said Jake.

"What're friends for?" John said. "Later JW."

"Bye JB," said Jake. The line went dead. Jake sighed and sat down on his desk as he contemplated his options.

"Damn," he said finally. Then his fax machine went off and something began printing from it. Jake tore it loose and looked at it.

"Well I'll be damned," he said. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Jake quickly shoved the document into his desk and leaned back in his chair.

"Come in," said Jake. Two scientists, Derrick, a red haired scientist from New York, and Abby, a young asian from San Francisco came in. They had come to work for Ingen three years back and had somehow found love despite the hectic nature of it all. They were to be married the next week and Jake was happy for both of them.

"Hey you two what's up?" Jake asked nonchalantly.

"Is it okay if we talk about what's going on with Ingen?" they asked. Jake shrugged.

"Sure," he said. "I don't know much but I'll answer as best I can."

"I guess that's fair," said Derrick before asking worriedly. "So what's the deal with our vacation? Has it been cancelled?"

"No," said Jake suddenly, before instantly calming down. "Of course not, you requested that time off months ago. You two are the model couple on this island and I'll be damned if anything is going to prevent you two from getting married and going on your honeymoon. The helicopter leaves tomorrow, be on it."

"Thanks," said Abby relieved. Jake sighed.

"I'm going to tell you something and it's strictly confidential, nothing I say will leave this room," he said. "Got that?"

Abby and Derrick nodded solemnly.

"This place is in all likelihood going to hell in a handbasket and I don't want to see you two get caught up in it. That's why I'm going to put in a transfer for you two to our research facilities in Kenya where you should be able to escape any potential fallout that'll likely occur," said Jake solemnly. "Go and have fun and enjoy the rest of your lives together because I don't want you to be here when the shit hits the fan."

"Thanks Jake, thanks a lot…for everything," said Abby. She leaned and gave him a kiss and both moved to leave.

"One thing," said Jake. "If anyone, Ingen or not, asks what day you were transferred and what day you left Sorna, it was yesterday. You left yesterday and under no circumstances are you to admit that you left today. A lot rides on this statement, can you promise me that."

"Yes," they both said. "But."

"I can't tell you why, no go on get packed, we'll meet each other again sometime," said Jake waving goodbye. Both of them nodded and left the room headed back to their rooms to quickly finish packing. Jake meanwhile opened up his drawer and looked at the typed note.

Effective Immediately, all Vacation Time for Sorna staff and personnel is cancelled immediately-Ingen Priority Order #12112134.

Jake growled and tore the page in half before lighting them on fire and burning them on his couch. He then put it out and sat down on the heavily damaged thing from his dorm room days. Suddenly his phone began ringing again. Jake sighed, got up, and picked it up.

"Whitacre…THEY'RE WHAT!" he shouted.

Indigo: "They're abandoning the damn island!" shouted Henry as helicopters roared by outside and various personnel ran out and boarded them as they took off for Costa Rica.

"Are they just leaving or what?" demanded Jake. Henry picked up a sheet of paper.

"Ingen Executive Order #997781-2, Indigo is to be immediately abandoned. Do not remove any technology whatsoever, just pack up your belongings and leave. Helicopters are coming to take you away back to the mainland where you will be sent back to San Diego and be transferred elsewhere," said Henry.

"Then how the hell are we supposed to receive our supplies?" demanded Jake.

"According to this, they're going to be sent directly to Sorna. They're effectively circumventing this damn island," said Henry.

"What about you, can you get back here?" asked Jake.

"I just got a call on my cellphone, I've been ordered to return back to San Diego," said Henry defeated. "Sorry Jake."

"No, it was going to happen anyway. Get going Henry, I'm sure this situation will sort itself out somehow. Goddamnit!"

"I'll see you around Jake," said Henry as the line went dead. Jake slammed the phone shut and rubbed his eyes trying to get rid of his massively building headache. Less than twenty-four hours later and already Ingen was falling apart from the inside. Then to Jake's shock, the fax machine went to work again and began printing. Jake ripped off the first page and looked it at. It was just informing him about the recall of all personnel Indigo and that the island was to be abandoned and all records of its existence were to be deemed highly classified.

"They're writing the damn thing off," said Jake shaking his head. "But what about the sanitary issues, we can't provide those kinds of facilities here, disease'll run rampant!"

He grabbed the other sheet and scrolled through it. All in all there were about two hundred names on it or so. Jake shrugged not understand what it meant until he got to the final line of the twelve page document.

"Recall immediately per the request of Peter Ludlow?" said Jake confused, reading the last line before it finally hit him. "Oh My God."

Jake suddenly leapt up out of his chair before he felt dizzy and sat back down. He then leapt back up, grabbed his coat and tore out of the room.

"Where're you going?" demanded Stevie as he ran past her.

"There's no time!" shouted Jake. Stevie watched him go bewildered before shrugging and returning to her work. Jake hopped in the Cadillac and took off back to the workers village.

Fifteen minutes later: The car roared to a halt in front of the main building and Jake hopped out and ran to the main building. He ran through the hallways as various people watched him confused before Jake entered into the communications room and locked the door. He then ran over to the radio and grabbed a hold of it.

"Ingen control, this is Site B over, please come in," said Jake.

"Ingen control go ahead," said the voice.

"I need to speak to Peter Ludlow," said Jake immediately.

"Yes sir, he's been expecting your call," said the voice. A few moments later a clicking noise was heard.

"Ludlow," said the voice. "How is it going Mr. Whitacre?"

"What the hell are you doing recalling 2/3s of all the personnel on this island?" Jake yelled back. "How're we supposed to be productive at all here? Better yet, how are we supposed to survive?"

"We are recalling these personnel so you and the rest can survive," said Ludlow. "So Ingen can survive."

"You're firing them all aren't you?" said Jake. "How is that going to solve anything? We need all the personnel here to produce dinosaurs in order to continue to market them!"

"They are not all going to be fired, some are going to be moved to different projects like Dr. Henry Wu. Meanwhile, Ingen has temporarily removed itself from the dinosaur revivification project," said Ludlow simply. Jake's jaw dropped.

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do here?" demanded Jake.

"Do what you want, we will decide how to properly take advantage of the island at a later date. Until then, goodbye Mr. Whitacre," said Ludlow. "Please make sure that all the affected personnel on the island are ready to leave. We'll be recalling them at various intervals throughout the next few months so until then keep the list a secret and file it in your safe."

"Pete, you can't do this!" shouted Jake as the line went dead. "Pete!"

Jake dialed the radio again.

"Mr. Ludlow does not wish to be reached at this time," was the only response he got. Jake slammed the radio against the wall and sat there with a raging headache.

"I didn't _ask_ for any of this!" he said angrily as he left the room as he walked amongst the rows of eggs and incubators. As he approached the doors, an egg near him burst open spilling forth a compy. Jake looked at it and the thing looked up at him wide-eyed. Jake growled and snapped out his hand and hoisted the thing up by its neck. He stared at the thing and it stared right back. The nearby scientists just looked at him in shock as Jake began shaking as he held the thing. He then began to apply pressure on the creature's neck and it slowly began chocking. Jake kept applying pressure and pressure until he finally came to his senses and stopped his actions. The compy breathed in deeply as Jake set the thing back down.

"No," he said bitterly. "I am not a monster."

Jake left.


	3. One Week Post Nublar

Front steps of the Administration Building in the Workers Village: "No I don't know if you're going to be fired or transferred," said Jake. It had been a week since his conversation with Peter Ludlow and two days later he had been given a second shorter list of names of people to be pulled out at the end of the week. He had reported it immediately and not surprisingly an uproar emerged minutes afterwards.

"How can you not know?" someone shouted.

"It's because Mr. Ludlow has remained silent on the whole matter. This list was all I got and when I tried to contact him, I was refused contact," Jake lied.

"I thought you said we'd be fine!" someone shouted.

"Apparently those at Ingen do not share my appraisal of the situation," Jake responded truthfully. "But should we really be that surprised? Ingen has to be on the verge of Chapter 11, there's no way to look around that fact. Recalls and layoff are probable I won't lie to you about that. But Mr. Hammond is a nice man and maybe it won't come to that. At the very least your severance package should be really worth something and you're all going to be paid off to remain silent about this place. Truth be told, getting fired really doesn't look half bad. Maybe I should ask to be fired also."

Some laughter rippled through the group clustered around the bridge and around the moat at that statement.

"Listen," said Jake seriously. "If Ingen does let you go, take some time off, enjoy life being free of this accursed island, and try and get a job at Pacific Pharmaceuticals. They employ a decent amount of geneticists there and I'm sure we all know someone who works there and it isn't half bad based on what've I heard. Anyway, for those of you that are being pulled out this week, I wish you luck, and your rides should be here in a couple hours. I'll see you in the future."

Jake got up from the steps and walked down the steps to some mild clapping from the crowd. Everyone saw that he was just as upset and torn apart as they were over the whole situation. Jake looked extremely sleep deprived and had a variety of rings under his eyes as though he hadn't slept in days. As he passed through the crowd, he got a variety of thank you's and appreciation for everything that Jake had done for them over the years. Jake nodded and stumbled off down the road past the crowd.

"Where're you going?" someone asked. Jake turned around weakly and looked at them through bloodshot eyes.

"To work," he said with a grin. He got more laughs as he stumbled off and the crowd dispersed. Jake stumbled a little bit down the road before collapsing in front of the gas station. He sat against the wall silently reflective as people passed by either heading off to work or to pack for the trip back home. Some noticed him by the side of the street, but put off his look as tiredness. Jake sat there for several minutes before he finally looked up as time seemed to almost slow down and become surreal.

"Hey buddy, what's troubling you?" a voice said.

"Nothing that should concern you," said Jake not looking up and absently using a stick to draw strange figures in the dust.

"I think it does," said the voice. "After all, it's me that concerns you."

"What're you-," began Jake annoyed before he looked up at the speaker. What he saw shocked him to the bone as his old pal Jeffrey stood there above him. Jake began shaking uncontrollably before falling over in shock.

"Always said you were too high strung," said Jeffrey with a laugh as he sat down on the spot Jake had vacated. Jake just continued to stare at him wide-eyed, his friend didn't appear to be a ghost, but then again Jake had to admit he'd never seen one before nor considered them to exist at all.

"Y-you're dead," said Jake still lying on the ground.

"Yeah, go figure," said Jeffrey leaning back against the gas station wall. "Still, had to happen sometime I guess."

"But _I_ killed you," said Jake sadly.

"No you didn't," said Jeffrey.

"Yes I-,"

"No, _you_ didn't. I should've been paying more attention while on top of that crate. I should've known a raptor could pull something like that. You told me everything to expect and I didn't pay attention to any of it. I died, it was my fault, end of story," said Jeffrey.

"Then why are you here?" asked Jake finally getting up and sitting next to his old friend.

"I'm here because you are in danger of doing something in which there will be no turning back," said Jeffrey sadly. Jake shook his head.

"I don't have a choice!" Jake said helplessly. "There's nothing to hold me back now! You're dead! Ingen is gone! We're all alone out here and still they're short changing our staff leaving us even more defenseless when they break loose! It's not just me because other members of the still remaining staff are beginning to feel the same way. If it comes to it, and believe me it will, _we will strike first!_"

"They're not your enemy!" shouted Jeffrey. "These creatures have no grudge against you or humanity, they just want to live and survive like everything else. If you attack them first, only death and destruction can come as a result. And it won't just be here and now, oh no, it will affect things for years and years to come. Don't do this Jake, turn back now, get a hold of this situation!"

"I can't," said Jake with extreme remorse. "It's too late for me. It's too late for us all. I'm sorry old friend but I'm no longer the person I once was, your death, my cousin Ian getting wounded by that rex, has finally opened my eyes to the truth. It is not a good truth, but a truth nonetheless. This island changes you, into what I don't know, but by just being here, you will be very different than when you first came."

"Look," said Jeffrey getting up to leave. "Just promise you'll think about it and when you are forced to make your decision, do not make it lightly."

"I hope it doesn't come to that," admitted Jake. "But somehow, I think it will. Life always finds a way."

"Yes, I guess it does," said Jeffrey nodding. "Well I've got to go, but I will be back, rest assured of that."

"I will," said Jake. "And hopefully things will be different."

"No," said Jeffrey sadly as he shook his head. "I don't think they will. Remember, when you look too long into the abyss that abyss looks right through. Don't forget what Santyanna said."

"That those for forget the past and condemned to repeat it?" said Jake with a grin.

"That a fanatic is someone who redoubles his efforts while loosing sight of the goal," said Jeffrey and with that he was gone and in his place was a velociraptor.

"Hey Jake, wake up," it said. Jake's eyes went wide-open before he snapped awake and found himself laying down on the doctor's examining table in the medical ward of the operations building. Jake groaned.

"Oy," he said. The doctor, LaSalle, hovered over him.

"You need more sleep!" he chastised.

"I'm fine!" said Jake angrily as he began to get up, but found that he was too weak to do it.

"See what I mean?" said LaSalle. "When Sam and Jeff found you, you were delirious and talking in your sleep about who knows what. If you don't get some sleep and soon I'll have no choice but to relieve you of command on this island."

"You can't do that, you don't have the power to enforce that decision, not anymore," said Jake willing himself to get up despite his pain.

"Maybe not," agreed LaSalle. "But I can pump you so full of drugs that you won't know one day from the next. Get some sleep or there'll be consequences."

"If I go to sleep, this island will fall apart at the seams," said Jake angrily. "I can't and won't let that happen. This is a perilous time for Ingen and this island and I will see to it that it never tips it in the wrong direction."

"One of those factors could be an overworked and sleep deprived leader," said LaSalle. Jake sighed.

"Based on the amount of sleep that you think I've gotten, what am I in most danger of right now?" said Jake.

"Hallucinations," said the doctor simply. That really made Jake think long hard. After a few moments he sighed and growled angrily.

"In this savage land, one man stands alone, Jack Tenrec, defending humanity in a world gone mad. A world where only the strong survive," began Jake.

"What are you talking about?" demanded LaSalle.

"A world of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs," finished the scientist.

"Oh," said LaSalle still somewhat confused by the validity of the reference. "So what're you going to do?"

"I'll get some sleep," said Jake finally as he left the room. Jake growled angrily as he left the room, he had simply too much to do, than go to sleep, but if he was relieved of command, things would get even worse. The scientist stumbled across the building where various scientists were sitting and loafing around.

"Get back to work," said Jake. "We can't afford to have laziness set in now; it'll impact the rest of the operations on this island."

"What operations?" someone asked. "There's no place to send them so what's the point?"

"Make one," said Jake harshly. "Now get back to work."

The scientists all grumbled, but ultimately got up and went back to the incubators.

"Look, I'm just as disillusioned as you all are, but we have to keep it together, we can't afford to let laziness set in because those creatures out there don't know that word. We have to keep at the top of our game if we hope to survive," said Jake solemnly. The scientists shrugged not really caring as Jake returned to his room back at the hotel. When he was walking down the main street though, he stopped and watched Stevie walking her protoceratops.

"Hey Stevie," said Jake walking up to the two of them.

"Oh hi Jake," said Stevie as she pushed up her sunglasses so they stood on top of her head.

"Hi Steviesaurus," said Jake bending down and rubbing the creatures crest causing it to growl happily. Jake stood up and began walking with the two of them down the street.

"She's looking a little tubby," said Jake.

"Yeah," admitted Stevie "That's why we're on our walk so she'll loose some weight. I've been feeding her way too many snacks."

"Hard to believe eating your greens can get you fat," said Jake shrugging.

"I don't think the greens were the problem," said Stevie. "Although thanks for that fern, she really enjoyed it."

"Well if not the greens then what?" said Jake before he noticed Stevie fidgeting nervously. "Oh no, you didn't feed her candy did you? Stevie, how could you? That's so irresponsible."

"You're the one who get her hooked on the stuff!" Stevie protested.

"When?" Jake demanded.

"During 'take your secretary to lunch' day!" said Stevie. "You couldn't handle that rich chocolate and you fed it to her. She was absolutely wired after that, for the next day and a half. Afterwards she wouldn't eat her greens unless I gave her candy as well. It took me forever to wean her off of that stuff! Believe me it's your entire fault. You made my baby become fat."

Jake laughed before he started yawning as his eyes began drooping. Stevie referred to the protoceratops as her child, but Jake would often have to take care of it when she went on vacation so that sometimes the scientists referred to it as their child. Stevie would sometimes refer to it as theirs if they were walking together with the thing. But on days like today when she felt that Jake was being detrimental to the protoceratops health, she referred to it as just being hers.

"Alright Stevie," Jake admitted. "I'm sorry. I don't want to see Steviesaurus suffer from high cholesterol, I'll keep in mind what I feed her in the future."

"Thanks," said Stevie. "You know you're not looking too hot yourself."

"Yeah," said Jake nodding sadly. "It's just the unfortunate side-effect of having to run a multi-million dollar installation with minimal staff. Three days would be hard enough, but from now until who knows when? It's a nightmare."

"I'm sure you'll manage," said Stevie beginning to laugh. "After all, if you could teach me Econ, you can do anything."

"At least your heart was in the right place," said Jake. "Here is another matter."

They walked in silence for another few moments as Steviesaurus ate what little grass was still left inside the compound.

"Hey Jake," said Stevie as they reached the apartment complex.

"Yeah," said Jake yawning as he stretched his arms out.

"Thanks again for everything," said Stevie. "Tutoring me in Econ, getting me this job here, presenting me with Steviesaurus, taking me out to lunch, just…thanks for everything."

"It was my pleasure," said Jake shrugging. "You've been a great friend over the years."

"Yeah," said Stevie nodding. "You too. Listen, I don't know if I'm going to be recalled or not, but if I am could you do me a big favor."

"Anything," said Jake shrugging.

"Please take care of Steviesaurus," said Stevie sadly as she looked at the thing. "I don't think she can survive in the wild and I'd fall apart if I found out anything bad happened to her because I had to leave."

"Yeah I'll watch over Stevie Jr. for you," said Jake bending down and rubbing the thing's frill. The creature rumbled again in pleasure.

"Well I'll see you two again sometime," said Jake making a motion to leave. "Oh, be careful when wandering around the perimeter fences on your own, it's dangerous out there. I don't want to see you two injured."

"We will. Bye Jake," said Stevie nodding as she and her protoceratops continued walking down the street and out of the compound. Jake sighed as he watched them go before he turned to the apartment complex and entered into it. He made his way to his room, which was adorned with mostly movie posters of Godzilla, Mad Max, one Carnosaur poster, and some promotional posters for Jurassic Park. Jake sighed and lay down on his bed before realizing something and picked up the phone. He dialed a long list of numbers.

"Hello, Ian Malcolm's room please. Yes I know he's still recuperating from his ordeal. My name's Jake Whitacre, I'm his cousin and he's expecting my call. Thank you," said Jake. He sighed and rubbed his weary eyes and silently cursed at himself. Ian had been injured a week ago and only now was he bothering to call him.

"Hey Ian it's me Jake. Yeah I'm glad you're alright. Listen sorry I couldn't call earlier, but works was really bogging me down and yes I know that isn't an excuse. Yeah I had no idea that was going to happen. So life did find a way, I bet you're happy. Chaos is inevitable, yes I know. Wait, what? They can't breed that's impossible, Grant's just off his rocker. West African Frogs? I don't know, it doesn't seem possible… Sure I'll think about it. No, I had nothing to do with those things on Jurassic Park," Jake lied and instantly felt intense guilt wash over him. "I just did research on amber deposits. Listen, Ian I'm sorry about what happened I really am. No, Ian don't do that! I'm not speaking out of loyalty to my company, if you speak out about what happened on Nublar Ingen will bury you! This isn't an idle statement, I've seen it done before. Speaking of which, what the hell happened over there? Nedry! Damn, I should've suspected him of having something up his sleeve. What's that, the nurse is telling you to get some rest? Alright I'll talk to you again sometime, say hi to Kelly for me. Good night Ian."

Jake hung up the phone and really rubbed his eyes. Now things were starting to fall into place, apparently Nedry had sold out Ingen, but neither John Hammond nor John Brown had mentioned that. Jake just shrugged it off and laid down on his bed and moments later he was sound asleep.


	4. Demon Visage

Jake's eyes snapped open and he stared at the ceiling of his room as alarms began blaring all over the operations center. Jake scowled and reached over and grabbed the rifle that he always kept by his bed. One month had passed since Nublar had fallen and with the loss of even more personnel to recalls, certain faculties had begun to fail on the island. Unfortunately, one of them was the power systems since most maintenance workers had already left, and that meant that the fences were occasionally prone to failure. Already the lights were winking on and off as power seemed to be disrupted all through the island and not just at the fences. Jake left his room and made his way down the stairs and out onto the streets. What few people were left in the compound were hurriedly scurrying about with their rifles at the ready as air raid sirens went off all over the island. Jake made his way into the operations building, but when he reached the wardroom, his card didn't go through and unlock the door. After a few moments of trying it, Jake groaned and knocked on the door. Someone opened it and Jake stepped inside.

"What's up?" asked Jake as he approached a group of scientists around a monitor with his rifle at the ready.

"We've got another runner," said Jeff, the last remaining operations manager, as he observed the monitors showing a velociraptor running down one of the streets.

"Damn, I told you that fence needed fixing," said Jake. "After that accident with the semi a couple weeks ago when it plowed into their fence, they've slowly been finding ways to escape through the gap, regardless of the sparking and flailing wires."

"And like I told you, we don't have the manpower to rewire the entire fence. We've lost enough people as it is to make powering the fences a bigger issue. We'll fix the fences at the earliest opportunity," said Jeff. "In the meantime, we've got to peg down this issue."

"Number 17 on the incursion list," said Sam, another member of the operations team, as he wrote down a note on a pad. On the list were other numbers and letter denominations. "You know, there _is_ an easier method to prevent these incursions from happening. Something a lot easier than tranqing the dinos and putting them back in their pens only for them to escape again."

"No," said Jake shaking his head. "Killing them is not the answer. If we do that then they'll all be on us and then we'd be having a lot more incursions than just this."

"Yeah but we're getting more and more tired from having to deal with them all," said Sam. "If we kill one of them, the others would know what would happen if they too try and brave the fence."

"Look I'd rather not risk it for now," said Jake. "Let's go get it."

He left with his rifle as Sam and Jeff accompanied him with their tranq guns. A black hummer roared to a halt in front of the building. The three got inside and found Gerry Harding driving the vehicle.

"Hey GH," said Jake as he slammed his door shut and the vehicle tore off down the road.

"Jake, Sam, Jeff," said Gerry acknowledging them all as the vehicle was let out through the main fence doors and took off down the road.

"So where's our quarry now?" Jake asked. Jeff consulted a handheld PDA.

"Looks like he's moving down the access road back to the Darwin Genetics Research Lab," he said as the vehicle bumped up and down.

"Is there even anybody left in there?" asked Jake.

"Unlikely, we pulled the remaining scientists from there during the last recall because they were hit so hard. No one should be in that general vicinity," said Jeff as the car severally bumped again.

"Alright good," said Jake grabbing a tranq gun and loading it with darts. "No worries about friendly fire then."

"Yeah, thank goodness for that," said Jeff. "I don't think I can deal with loosing another worker given that we're so short staffed as it is."

"Yeah well let's take it down before we loose it," said Jake.

Fifteen Minutes Later: The hummer roared down another road before it came to a halt in front of the Darwin Research Lab.

"It's in there alright," said Jeff looking at the motion trackers.

"Damn," said Jake. "Can you access any of the security cameras?"

"No," said Sam. "We cut power to this place after we abandoned it in order to divert it to where it was really needed. It'll take too long to power this place back up again and we can't spare it. We'll just have to go in and flush it out somehow."

"Great," said Gerry. "Well I guess that means no splitting up."

The four got out of the car and looked up at the desolate building standing ominously in front of them.

"Can't say I've been here lately," said Jake. "Not long enough to recall the layout at any rate."

"Yeah," said Sam as he opened the door and they stepped inside. "And these building aren't prefabricated either so each one is different from the next."

"Then keep your eyes and ears peeled," said Gerry. "I believe the top level is the way to go."

"Right," said Jake nodding. "Circular formation then."

"What about backup?" asked Sam worriedly.

"It won't come until they finally put that maiasaur back into its pit. It's taking at least a third of the people we have and three jeeps left just to drag it back. If any come, it'll be too late by then," said Gerry grumbling.

"Right," said Jake. "So keep silent."

The others nodded and moved from position to position down the various hallways looking for their escapee. After several minutes of searching, they came up empty.

"Where the hell is it?" demanded Jake. "It _is_ still here right?"

"Yeah," said Sam bewildered at the results of the motion tracker on his PDA. "It's moving all over the place!"

"Then where?" began Gerry before a thud was heard high above them. The four looked at each other wide-eyed.

"He's on the damn roof?" shouted Gerry annoyed. "Oh that's just great."

"Why hasn't it jumped off yet?" asked Jeff.

"Who cares?" said Jake shrugging. "We've got him now."

The four ran up the stairs that lead to the roof and finally reached the door.

"You don't think it could've opened the door do you?" asked Sam bewildered.

"I doubt it," said Jake with a snort. "Regardless of how smart you think they might be, they would never be able to develop that kind of intelligence."

"I don't know," said Gerry. "I did hear rumors…"

"Rumors," said Jake rolling his eyes. "When you see it; then believe it. Besides, the door opens outward, any pressure of force would let you onto the roof. That's probably why the thing can't get back in the building, because it lacks the dexterity to open it back up."

"Whatever," said Jeff trying to get back on subject. "Caution should be taken, that thing could be anywhere up there."

"Right," said Jake nodding. "Let's go, I'll go out first. Make sure the door is shut whoever is the last one out. It may mean we're trapped up there, but it also means that raptor isn't going anywhere."

"We'll be right behind you," said Gerry. Jake nodded, but as he turned to open the door, he thought he caught a brief glimpse of Jeffrey shaking his head slowly. Jake shook his head, scowled, and threw open the door. He aimed his gun in every single direction of the roof, but didn't spot the raptor anywhere. Jake silently treaded across the multi-angled roof as the other followed him. They leapt over from edge to edge searching for the raptor.

"It is resourceful, I'll give it that," said Jake angrily after a couple minutes of searching turned up fruitless.

"It looks like we have to split up," said Gerry reluctantly.

"Yeah," said Jake. "Otherwise we'll never get this whole roof covered. Alright, keep in visual contact."

Jake took off in one direction and the other three in other ones. They slowly crept along the roof as silently as possible while searching for the beast. Still they found nothing. Eventually they all just looked at each other bewildered.

"Is it still here?" Jake mouthed to Sam who was looking at his PDA. Sam nodded but just shrugged.

"Where?" Gerry mouthed. Sam tapped on the PDA before throwing his arms up in frustration. Jake groaned and squeezed the bridge of his nose in defeat when he heard a creaking noise nearby. He threw up his hands and the others grabbed their guns and aimed it in his general vicinity as Jake looked everywhere around him. The creaking noise seemed to be emanating from the edge of the roof so Jake made his way there. He looked up and down the edge before sighing and looking over the edge. To his shock, he found the raptor hanging there with its claws dug so deep in the side of the building that it had made handholds. Jake looked down in shock as the beast roared at him angrily. However, before Jake could bring his tranq gun to bear on the creature, it launched itself into the air and flew up over the edge of the roof. Spinning in a primitive form of a spinning heel kick, it smacked Jake on the chest and he went flying backwards as his gun fired harmlessly off into the air. The raptor loomed over him before it noticed the other men on the roof aiming at it. The thing snarled and tore off across the roof as the other men opened fire on it. However, to hit a creature that could reach sixty miles per hour at a moment's notice, it proved ultimately futile. The raptor smacked the gun away from Gerry before leaping and twisting in midair to tackle Jeff and knock the wind out of him as his gun flew out of his hands and off the roof to the ground below. It then spun to face Sam who was trying desperately to fire his gun, but for some reason it refused to fire. Grinning slyly, the raptor slowly walked towards the mortified worker. Sam looked around desperately for some place to run to, but he was backed up against the edge of the roof and the raptor was between him and the door to below. Sam closed his eyes and waited for the end to come as the beast drew closer and closer to him. Behind him, Jake groaned and got to his feet and stood their holding his ribs as they still hurt from the kick. Looking at the current situation, Jake looked for his gun, but found it too far away for him to get to and fire in time, assuming it worked at all. As he weighed his options, Jake's arm brushed against the butt of his rifle protruding from the inside of his jacket. Jake threw back his jacket and looked at the thing as the raptor drew closer and closer to Sam. The scientist then looked at his tranq gun and weighed his options. After a couple seconds, he had made his decision.

"Jake don't do it!" shouted Jeffrey in his mind. "You swore you wouldn't!"

"I've seen one friend die at a raptors hands, I refuse to see anyone else die by their hands," said Jake bitterly and through tears. Time seemed to slow down as Jake threw back part of his jacket to reveal the butt of the rifle. He slowly yanked it out and aimed it as the raptor went airborne flying straight at Sam. Sam yelled as Jake yanked back on the pump action handle.

"DON'T DO IT!" shouted the voice even louder in his head.

"_I'm sorry old friend_," thought Jake sadly. Jake fired and the bullet went flying out. The leaping raptor then disappeared in a mist of blood and guts flying everywhere. Jake stood there with his smoking rifle for several minutes as he stood there still caught up in the heat of the moment. Gerry and Jeff meanwhile ran over to Sam to make sure that he was alright.

"You look good in red," said Jeff not trying to throw up. Sam was in shock so any thoughts of heaving from all the bodily fluids around him hadn't entered into his mind yet. Jake approached them silently with his rifle dragging behind him. He stood there wondering what their reactions would be.

"Not a bad piece of work," said Gerry looking at the remains of the velociraptor. "Bout time someone fought back, I'm tired of their constant unopposed incursions. Score one for the home team!"

Jake didn't say anything he just stood there with his rifle and looked out at the jungle surrounding them. Jake shuddered as the jungle seemed almost like it was encroaching on them.

"_Because in the end…its judgment that defeats us_," thought Jake with understanding.

"So what do we do with that?" asked Jeff pointing to the raptor's carcass.

"We bury it," said Jake. "Better the other raptors don't know what happened to their comrade."

"Did you guys get it?" a voice crackled over their radios.

"Yeah we got it, Joseph," said Jake into his.

"Unfortunately, it fell off the roof to its death after we tranquilized it. We'll have to bury the remains," said Gerry into his radio.

"Good," said Joseph. "And good riddance to bad rubbish I say."

The radio went dead.

"We all feel it, why ignore it?" asked Gerry holding up his hands. "We hate them so why not vent our frustrations on them? They're the cause of all our problems anyway."

"Nedry was the cause of all of our problems," said Jake sighing as he sat on the roof and dangled his legs over the edge, it wasn't easy to admit it. "The dinosaurs merely took advantage of it. We are to blame for all this, no one or nothing else. We played God, is it any wonder the door would come back and hit us in the ass?"

"Do you regret what you've done on this island?" Jeff asked. Jake shook his head vigorously.

"No I don't regret what I've done. We did what no one else could do and we earned that right through blood, sweat, and tears. We made them, we patented them, we own them and _nothing_ will change that," said Jake.

"So what do we do?" asked Gerry. "We have to do something or else we'll all go mad!"

"You guys can do whatever the hell you want," said Jake standing up. "I won't stop you and I won't hinder your efforts. We're all going to burn for this sooner or later, better dig ourselves into this hole than be put in it for no reason."

"Finally," said Gerry relieved. "And this isn't all bad. Hunting dinosaurs is something that hasn't been done…ever. And think about the dissection we can gain from live specimens, the possibilities are endless."

"Just don't destroy all the specimens," said Jake. "That's all I ask."

"Yeah we hear ya," said Gerry as he and Jeff hauled the carcass over their shoulders and off towards the building.

"You okay Sam?" Jake asked nudging him.

"I feel like shit," said Sam spitting out some blood. Jake grinned.

"Well look at it this way, you feel like it, you look like it, and you're covered by it. Three for three ain't bad," said Jake laughing. Sam nodded weakly before he ran over to the edge of the building and threw up.

"We'll be downstairs," said Jake leaving. As he walked down the steps, Jake seriously wondered if what he was doing was right. If he let the workers go nuts killing and possibly torturing the dinosaurs, was he acting humanely at all? He honestly didn't know, but he had to reluctantly admit that maybe it had to deal with the recall of Stevie Sandelder.

* * *

Four Days Ago: Jake was eating a celery stick as he read the latest survey of employee morale. Every time there was a recall of personnel, morale sunk 20 lower and was now hovering around an all time low of 15. Jake wanted to find a way to bring it up, but so far nothing had worked. Everyone seemed too restless to engage in any of the old company picnics or sporting events. They wanted to do something, but Jake couldn't figure out what. Although he had to admit that maybe it had to do with the dinosaurs, he'd seen their contemptuous glances at them and it had unsettled him. As he was still deciding what to do, the fax began printing again. Jake groaned and realized that this was probably it, morale would hit zero. The last page printed before the unit lost power and shut down and the lights began flickering again. Jake groaned as he grabbed the papers before power in the complex shutdown completely leaving only the emergency lights on.

"Just a little temporary problem with the power," said Jeff over the radio. The geothermal power unit had to be taken off-line for maintenance and with fewer and fewer personnel, it looked like repairs would take longer and longer. As a result they had to operate off of gas power and that was hardly an equal substitute for all the power requirements an island this size needed. It may have been good enough of Nublar, but it was not good enough here.

"All fences are still operating at 75 efficiency though," Sam chimed in to relieve everyone. Jake meanwhile flipped on his flashlight and began reading through the next list of names to be recalled. As he was scrolling through the names, he came upon a name that he hoped he'd never have to read: Stephanie Sandelder.

"Jeff, do we have enough power for the radio?" Jake asked.

"No," came the response. "But why bother, we haven't have had any contact with the outside world in a month, why would it start now?"

"Forget it," said Jake. "I'm going to the Hammond Research Lab."

"Why?" asked Jeff. "We'll have the power back on soon enough."

"I just need to pick something up in my office," said Jake.

"It's your call," said Jeff as the radio went dead. Jake groaned and got up out of his chair. He made his way down the blackened corridors with his flashlight as other people slowly began vacating the nearly empty building. They emerged into the blinding sunlight and Jake headed down to the garage. He headed in and stared at the V-8 Interceptor. The car seemed to be the perfect amalgamation of him, the V-8 Interceptor part the darker side to his personality that seemed to be emerging and almost overtaking his good side, the remains of the Falcon that had yet to be replaced. Jake sighed and got in the car and powered it up. The vehicle tore off down the road and headed towards the Hammond Lab. After a couple minutes driving and contemplating his current situation, the vehicle rumbled to a halt in front of the lab. Jake walked up the steps and into the lab.

"Hey Jake-o," said Stevie from behind her desk as she filed something away. "What's up?"

"Let's go for a walk," said Jake simply. Stevie looked at him perplexed before she shrugged and grabbed her sunglasses.

"Okay," she said simply. She grabbed a leash and she and Steviesaurus rounded the receptionist area and they trio of them emerged from the building and walked down the steps past the Interceptor.

"So you finally took her for a spin," said Stevie. "Hard to believe your dream became a reality."

"I've known you for too long," said Jake with a grin before he sighed deeply.

"What?" Stevie asked before she noticed something down below. "Steviesaurus, don't do that!"

The dinosaur looked at her confused as it peed all over the Interceptor's front left tire. Jake smirked.

"That's okay, it could use a wash," he said but again he sighed right after and gloominess set over him.

"What's wrong?" asked Stevie as they walked down the road. "You seem more upset than usual."

"I'm loosing it Stevie," said Jake abruptly. "I can't maintain my sanity any longer. This island is closing in around me, I can't keep being the person I once was."

"Yeah I know how it is," said Stevie shivering. "This place is creepy I'll give you that. I bet one day I'll be decked out in camouflage paint and fatigues hunting dinosaurs with only my trusty knife. _Apocalypse Now_ won't have anything on me."

She laughed at that as Jake nodded humbly.

"I'm just worried when all is said and done, will I come out unscathed, or just a shell of my former self?" asked Jake. "I'm loosing my grip on reality Stevie, really I am. All it will take would be one snap decision and it could tip this whole island into darkness."

Silence descended on the trio and the only thing breaking it was Steviesaurus' constant munching on grass.

"I know what you need," said Stevie finally. "You need something physical to keep you rooted in reality, something that when you look at it, it will remind you of who you really are."

"Sounds reasonable," Jake admitted.

"Now what should it be?" Stevie wondered. "Aha, I've got it."

Stevie pulled out a locket that she almost always wore around her neck. She popped it open to reveal a photo of her, Jake, and Steviesaurus that had been taken the day she'd received the dino as thanks for her hard work on the island.

"Just remember this day, and you will never succumb to whatever demons haunt this island," she said as she put it around Jake's neck.

"Thanks Stephanie," said Jake with a mild grin.

"Haven't called me that in awhile," said Stevie. "And only when you're bearing bad news. I've been recalled haven't I?"

"Yeah," said Jake. "Figured it'd be best if I broke it to you in person than having you hear it over a radio broadcast."

"Truth be told, I am kind of glad to be getting out of here," said Stevie. "But I will miss you two more than anything else."

She bent down and hugged her little dinosaur who rumbled happily.

"You two watch out for each other okay?" she said. "I expect to see you two again sometime."

"But who knows when that'll be?" said Jake. Stevie stood back up.

"It will happen, and then we'll all be together again," she said confidently. Jake smiled.

"Always the optimist," he said. Stevie shrugged.

"Well someone has to be in this family," she said. Jake kissed her on the forehead and together the three advanced down the street. The next day, she was gone and Jake was left to his own dark self that seemed to know no bounds, the room he was in now following the incident with the raptor. Steviesaurus sat on the ground in a hump, no longer showing the energy it once had when Stevie was around, and the locket was hung around its neck. Jake had taken the thing off after he had shot the velociraptor deeming himself no longer worthy of wearing it. As he continued to sit there thinking about the future downfall of this island, a knock was heard on his door. The door creaked open and Gerry poked his head in.

"We're going hunting, do you want to come?" he asked. Jake looked at the protoceratops who looked back at him with haunting eyes, the same eyes he'd seen on Jeffrey's face before he went onto that roof.

"_The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he didn't exist_," flashed through Jake's mind.

"Yeah I'm coming," said Jake as he grabbed his rifle and together the two left the darkened room.


	5. Descent into Darkness

Sorna: Jake emerged from the housing complex with his rifle as he put on his jacket to reveal fifteen SUVs packed with various members of the island.

"Is this what you all did in your spare time?" asked Jake incredulously. "Prepare yourself to hunt dinosaurs?"

"Yeah," came the unified response.

"Well except for some of the scientists who have been itching to dissect and experiment on them," said Gerry.

"And just what brought up these feelings?" asked Jake.

"What is this, twenty questions?" someone said. A laugh arose at that.

"I have to put something down on the official reports back to base," said Jake. "They're going to want to know why what happened has."

"So they can arrest us for inhumane treatment?" asked Karrie, one of the few remaining mechanics.

"Look at it this way," Jake reasoned. "There's not a hell of a lot Ingen can do about it. These dinosaurs do not fall PETA's jurisdiction and if Ingen wanted to bring you to court for destroying their assets, how would they do it? The only possibly way would be to mention the dinos and at the moment Ingen is not about to do that. The DR Project is now officially, temporarily, no longer associated with Ingen in any way shape or form. Only recovering from the loss of Nublar is. So spill it. Why are you all so eager to hunt done the dinosaurs?"

"Because it's never been done before," someone chimed in.

"Yeah and because like you said, Ingen's sworn off this island. As a result, they've sworn off us and so until they recall us, we no longer hold any loyalty to them either," said Carl.

"Yeah," yelled someone else. "We've had no outside communications with Ingen for well over a month besides these recalls. They're not treating us humanely so we don't treat the dinosaurs humanely. It is transference, is that so wrong?"

"The dinos took over Nublar, we're just ensuring that that doesn't happen here. Preemptive strike isn't always a crime!"

"Yeah," shouted Gerry. "So can we get on with this?"

"Go nuts," said Jake. "I have to go file my report."

"You're not coming with us?" asked Jeff. Jake shook his head.

"Another time, bookkeeping waits for no one," said the scientist.

"Later," said Karrie. The moving posse rolled off leaving a cloud of dust behind. Jake pulled out his sunglasses and put them on as he moved back towards the operations building, the fully powered operations building. Somehow hearing that they could finally do what they wanted on this island, had prompted everyone to finally finish the maintenance of the geothermal power plant so they wouldn't have anything to interfere with their fun, or cause problems to get way over their head if all the dinosaurs broke loose. Jake walked up to the stairs as a pair of scientists stood there, one with a rifle, the other with a strange contraption and a crate full of ostrich eggs.

"What're you two up to?" Jake asked bewildered.

"Just relieving some stress on these failed experiments," said the first one, Billy.

"Yeah, this is a device my son made for his sixth grade science project, it's an egg launcher. He gave it to me knowing that I worked a lot with eggs. Figured now's a good time as any to use it," said the second, Mandy.

"And relieve some stress. Working day and night on helping embryo fertilization only to realize that your efforts ultimately failed thank to…nature," Billy. "Can get really annoying. Well not anymore, mankind strikes back for once. Pull!"

Mandy fired the egg and it went flying off. Billy shot several rounds at it, but failed to connect leaving the egg to splatter on the bridge over the moat.

"You're a lousy shot," Jake observed. The scientists shrugged.

"We've got plenty of eggs to get better with," said Mandy.

"And they're still destroyed anyway, everybody wins!" said Billy.

"If you say so, but I wouldn't recommend eating any of them," said Jake, no longer bothering about the waste of assets, what had happened to him? He proceeded inside where the only remaining scientists, amounting to no more than four, were playing cards.

"Hard at work huh?" Jake asked bemused. The scientists shrugged.

"We're just waiting for them to bring back a carcass for us to dissect," said one of them.

"Or better yet, a live one," said another. "There's nothing like testing a pain threshold of a creature that hasn't been around in 65 million years. The scientific knowledge that we can gain from learning all we can about these species is endless. Thing about the possibilities, improved defenses from diseases, getting a better understanding of our world, they're endless!"

"Speaking of possibilities, read 'em and weep, full house!" shouted the fourth scientist showing his hand.

The others groaned and threw down their cards in disgust as the scientist collected the cash on the table and grinned wildly. Jake prepared to leave when one of the scientists said something that made him stop briefly.

"Remember, I get first dissection rights on a living specimen," said the winning scientist. Jake sighed and continued off to his office. He entered inside and slowly began typing up his report to fax back to the offices in San Diego.

Official Report: #J77892, 07/27/93.

Geothermal power that had been offline since 06/16/93 has subsequently been restored much sooner than earlier prediction of 09/09/93. As such, electric capacity is up to 97 percent efficiency, well above minimum safety standards. The damage to the electric fence surrounding the raptor pen caused by a blow out on one of the tires of a semi, causing it to crash into it, nearly killing the driver and the rescue team, is still unfixed. Jeff Spaniel reports that while it may be possible to repair the fence with our current supplies, a complete new set of three high tension wires for the fence would be a better solution. Previous requests for a new set of cables have gone unheeded for the last pair of reports even though to obtain one from Indigo would take little to no effort. Some members of the team are contemplating going to Indigo themselves to get it using either one of the boats or the emergency helicopter we have here. Is there any opposition to this plan? Somehow I don't expect a response so we'll be going anyway to scrounge up whatever parts we can.  
Regarding the morale levels, as of four days ago, they had sunk to zero percent I kid you not. However, events have occurred recently that shot this morale back up to 95 percent. The event in question is essentially the sacrifice of our morals. As of this writing, several teams have gone out into the island to essentially hunt down some of the dinosaurs. Yes that is correct, I said hunt down the dinosaurs. What would cause such a radical course of action you ask? It is quite simple really. You blew us off so we are blowing you off. Every attempt by us to establish contact with the outside world has been shot down. Not only that, but the only communiqués from you have been nothing but recall notices with no information of Ingen's current financial status and all airdrops of the current newspapers and _essential supplies_ have stopped. You cut us off from all vacation time and then you completely left us in the proverbial dark about everything and it is that darkness that has consumed this island. I seriously doubt you're going to do anything about this anyway so this is really just a courtesy letter. Later, Ludlow.

Chief Researcher Jake L. Whitacre

Ingen Complex, San Diego: "Goddamnit," said Peter Ludlow. He tossed the report onto the table and held his head in shame. All around him, the other members of the board, minus John Hammond who had become more and more withdrawn following Nublar's collapse, were also reading the report.

"What did you expect?" asked Samantha Carter, another member of the board. "You left them alone on that island, recalled more than 3/4's of the personnel on the island, cut them off from all communications with the outside world, and _didn't_ expect them to go mad? What was your rationale for those decisions again? Somehow seeing the reports from Site B going from bad to worse have made me to forget."

"We don't have the funds to allow for all the personnel on that island, it'd tip us over the edge. We cut off all communications for legal purposes so we can deny any and all knowledge of the island and in the event of cases like this, we can disavow all knowledge of knowing that it happened," said Ludlow.

"What're you suggesting?" asked Lucious Fox, another member of the board.

"We bury it," said Ludlow simply. "Let them do what they want, I don't care. As long as the embryos and at least some of the specimens manage to survive, then at a later date we can exploit Site B for all that its worth. Until then, it is simply not our problem because I never saw this memo, none of us did, and as such we don't have any responsibility towards that island."

Peter Ludlow took the memo and dropped it through a nearby shredder. Once that was done, he took a match and dropped it in the wastebasket. As the smoke wafted up, all the board members looked it at like it would one day be an act that would doom them all.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Samantha. Ludlow lightly shrugged.

"Ingen is my concern now, not one of it's out of control assets regarding a foolish venture that should never have been undertaken in the first place. I know that I am right," he said as he left the room. The others took one last look at the rising smoke before they too left the room.

"God help them," said Samantha before she left. "God help us all."

Sorna, two weeks later: Large explosion tore up the ground as a herd of hadrosaurs ran around terrified while several vehicles tore off from out of the jungle and chased them. They managed to isolate a single member of the herd and were firing at it wildly before the thing smashed into the electrified fence, causing electricity to leap all over its body. The creature stumbled backwards with foam in its mouth before it collapsed in a heap. The other vehicles surrounded it and the hunters got out and observed their latest conquest.

"Too bad it's not dead," said Gerry looking at the unconscious beast.

"Yeah," said Karrie. "But we've got its ID number, we'll be back for the ultimate kill."

"Yeah," said Gerry. "Well I think I've had enough fun in the past two weeks to grant a reprieve. Saddle up folks, let's go home."

As the convoy moved off, Jake stood there on the other side of the fence watching the spectacle with Steviesaurus.

"Not too shabby," said Jake to no one in particular. "Not too shabby."

Steviesaurus just looked at the spectacle with saddened eyes before looking at Jake with eyes that seemed to bore right through him.

"Don't give me that look," said Jake. "I've done what I've done and now I can only live by that decision."

The dinosaur continued looking at him, as if straight into his soul.

"No one knows what it's like. To be the bad man, to be the sad man, behind blue eyes," said Jake bitterly. "No one knows what it's like. To be hated, to be fated, to telling only lies. But my dreams, they aren't as empty as my conscience seems to be. I have hours, only lonely. My love is vengeance that's never free."

Jake trailed off at that as the convoy rumbled up to a halt next to him.

"Want a lift?" Gerry asked from his hummer. Jake shook his head.

"I'm fine walking, besides, she needs her walk," said Jake pointing to Steviesaurus.

"Your call," said the posse as they drove off down the road, happy over their recent hunt. Jake watched them go before looking down at Steviesaurus who was still staring at him.

"What?" he asked with a grin. "Speak up little one."

"Finish the song," said the creature. Jake's expression dropped and he just stood there dumbfounded at the creature.

"Finish the song," said Steviesaurus louder.

"No," said Jake, resisting the suggestion. "What's the point?"

"What about the final lines? When my fist clenches, crack it open before I loose my cool. When I smile tell me, some bad news before I laugh and act like a fool. If I swallow anything evil, put your finger down my throat. If I shiver, please give me a blanket. Keep me warm, let me wear your coat. No one knows what it's like to be the bad man, to be the sad man, behind blue eyes," said the little dino. "Do not forget those words or the message is not complete, you're getting half-truth."

"Or a half-lie, which is one I'm willing to live out at the moment," said Jake.

"Only a fool ignores the truth," said the protoceratops.

"There is no truth, when you make creatures that mother-nature killed 65 million years ago, the truth becomes relative," Jake said.

"And this is simply correcting that situation is that it?" asked Steviesaurus.

"Why the hell am I even talking to you? I _don't_ have an issue with my conscience, not anymore," said Jake shaking his head vigorously. "Nothing you can say or do will change that."

"You're just denying your true feelings. Why haven't you engaged in any wanton destruction of property or assets? Everyone else seems to have," said the dino.

"I'll get around to it," said Jake.

"I don't think you will," said the protoceratops.

"And why not?" asked Jake.

"Because you're cracking up faster than this island is," said Steviesaurus. "If you stay here any longer you're gonna loose it and there will be no turning back."

"What makes you come to that conclusion?"  
"You're talking to a protoceratops," said Steviesaurus. "And you're spotting pop culture references left and right. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, the Who, believe me those are the first signs of a bigger problem and in your case it's a psychotic episode. In essence you will become like the dinosaurs you hate so much."

"If that's how it has to be-," began Jake.

"No!" shouted Steviesaurus. "Don't play that game with me. You aren't destined to die in a blaze of glory. You're a scientist, you are not a hero! Turn back from this brink you think you are destined to plunge over and take control of this island! Things don't have to be this way! The people on this island are not evil, they're just misguided, and you have to show them the right path."

"I don't take advice from dinosaurs," said Jake coldly. "How do I know you aren't trying to help the dinosaurs take control of this island like they did to Nublar?"

"You know the truth," said Steviesaurus. "And you don't want to admit that you do, but you do. But if you need proof, here's your proof."

Stevie's locket that hung around Steviesaurus' neck took a life of its own and looked like it was trying to escape from the dinosaur's possession. Jake looked at the thing bizarrely as it began glowing brighter and brighter. The locket snapped open and briefly showed Jake, Stevie, and Steviesaurus' picture inside when suddenly gallons and gallons of water came rushing out of it. Jake instantly found himself struggling amongst a choppy sea of water as Steviesaurus stood on a raft nearby.

"Only you can save yourself, and your soul," said the dinosaur. Then a massive flash blinded the area.

Jake suddenly snapped awake to see Steviesaurus licking his face. He looked around to find himself unconscious still outside of the Hadrosaur Pit and with the moon high above his head.

"Oh, shit," said Jake rubbing his eyes heavily. "Not again."

Steviesaurus just looked at him confused.

"You can't talk can you?" Jake asked.

"Yes I can," said Steviesaurus.

"Aaahhh!" yelled Jake as laughter erupted from behind him. Jake twisted to see Gerry laughing at him from in front of his hummer.

"I got you good that time!" he said. "That's revenge for that April Fool's Joke of your last year with that life sized dilophosaurus that greeted me when I woke up that morning. Revenge is oh so sweet!"

"Oh shut up Gerry," said Jake. He got up and grabbed Steviesaurus' leash and the two advanced towards the vehicle.

"So how long've you been there?" Jake asked as he got inside with the dino.

"Pretty much just right before you woke up," said Gerry. "It was cute seeing you laying on the ground asleep with your arm around that protoceratops, who was also asleep. When I arrived she woke up and tried to lick you awake as well. Very loyal that one," said Gerry as he powered up the car and it drove off down the road.

"Yeah she is," said Jake scratching her neck and trying to forget all that dream nonsense. "How come you only came looking for me now?"

"We weren't sure you were missing until an hour ago. With so few people on this island it's hard to keep good tabs on anybody, but I figured you probably were passed out right near where we last saw you and lo and behold you were," said Gerry.

"Yeah thanks for coming to get me," said Jake distantly. "Heaven forbid a raptor got loose and came looking for me."

"Yeah," said Gerry nodding. "That pen does need to get fixed."

"Which is why I'm going to Indigo," said Jake. "I've put it off for too long, I'm going tomorrow."

"Good luck with that," said Gerry. "It'll be good for you to get off this island for a little while, maybe you can finally get some sleep. Course I will miss tormenting you, but…"

"Gerry you have to come also," said Jake. "This island is warping all of our minds and if we're not careful we'll have a regular _Lord of the Flies_ on our hands."

"I don't believe that," said Gerry laughing nervously.

"If you put a frog in hot water, he'll jump out immediately, but if you slowly warm it up he'll roast alive," said Jake. "The changes on this island are occurring subtle enough that we're not noticing it. But I can see the difference because I am loosing it faster than the rest of you and I can notice the difference."

"You said you're cracking up quicker than the rest of us, couldn't this simply be a delusion from your lack of sleep?" asked Gerry as rain began falling on the island.

"It's possible, maybe I am wrong," said Jake as he looked down and scratched Steviesaurus' head. At the instant he expressed doubt, the dinosaurs eyes rolled to look at him, causing Jake to shiver. "But even if I am, getting off this island could all do us some good."

"You want everyone to leave this island?" Gerry asked incredulously.

"No," said Jake. "Just the senior staff of you, me, Jeff, Sam, and Carrie. That ought to do it. We'll leave Stracken in charge because he seems to be the most sane of us. Together we'll go to Indigo, clear out heads, get what we need, come back, and hopefully things'll be different."

"Well I guess we don't have a choice seeing as you are our boss," said Gerry somewhat disappointed.

"It'll be for the best Gerry, believe me. None of us have slept much in the past month, this should really help," said Jake.

"Alright," said Gerry. "Alright."

Jake looked down at Steviesauru again.

"Well?" he whispered. "Am I doing the right thing?"

Steviesaurus was fast asleep and Jake just laughed as the vehicle sped down the road.


	6. Indigo

Pacific Ocean, 2 months post Nublar: Waves crashed against the Ingen boat as it made its way towards Indigo that was at just the right location that it formed a triangle with Nublar and Sorna of Ingen owned islands. Jake, Gerry, Jeff, Sam, and Karrie, and three other workers who had wanted to get off the island as well, Rebecca Jorden and Carter J. Burke, were all on the boat. Gerry, still reluctant to be going along, was driving the boat while the rest sat around the deck with Jake tossing a ball that Steviesaurus kept bounding after to grab and bring back. It had been fun at first, but after three hours it was getting boring for Jake, even thought the little dino still seemed happy to do it.

"I hope Stracken doesn't have too much fun while I'm gone," Gerry grumbled.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of stock when we get back," said Carrie dangling her feet in the water. Even though they both were reluctant to come, somehow getting off the island was a huge stress relief for all of them.

"How much longer is it?" asked Rebecca, bored. She was perhaps the youngest member to be on Sorna ever, as at just eighteen, she was interning for the summer. Jake was still shocked that she had even been let on the island in the first place, rumor had it her grandfather had been best friends with Hammond, but even more shocked that she had yet to be recalled. Not that it necessarily mattered because after all when the summer was over she too would be gone. Assuming Ingen survived that long, it had been two months since Nublar had gone under and still they had no knowledge about the rest of the world.

"It's two more hours," said Jake trying to shrug off those thoughts as he tossed the ball once again down the deck.

"What exactly is on this island again?" asked Karrie. "This boat ride is warping my memory."

"Like I said," said Jake annoyed. "It's a cross between Nublar and Sorna. The island was designed to channel everything between the mainland and Jurassic Park along with Site B. It has an exact replica of the Visitors Center from Nublar as well as the containment facilities that we possess on Sorna. It has dozens of warehouses that right now we need access to. Food, weapons, electric cables, we're severally lacking in all of them and we need them. That and because it has no dinosaurs is the reason we're going."

"Hey, can we go to Nublar?" asked Rebecca.

"No," came the unified response.

"Just asking," said Rebecca lightly.

"You can go if you want," said Karrie. "If you want to get eaten by the half starved dinosaurs on that island go ahead."

"Maybe they're not half-starved," Jake mused. "I heard a rumor that the dinos could breed and maybe they ate their young."

"I thought the dinos couldn't breed," said Burke beginning to hyperventilate. Burke was an accountant, who was absolutely terrified of the creatures, and had come to Sorna from Indigo just to see what it was like, only to be trapped there when Nublar collapsed and Indigo was abandoned.

"Apparently it had something do with the West African frogs we spliced into the dino DNA," said Jake shrugging. "I think I'll do more research on it when I get back to Sorna. If those dinos are breeding, we're gonna have a bigger issue than we're ready for."

"That _could_ pose a problem," Jeff mused. "But I don't see how it's possible."

"Making dinosaurs shouldn't have been possible," Sam interjected. "But we pulled it off. This might be something that we couldn't have anticipated when making the genetic sequence."

"Are West African Frogs the only frogs that can do that?" Karrie asked.

"Yeah," said Jake. "I checked after I found out."

"So why'd we use them?" asked Sam.

"Two reasons," said Jake as he bit into a banana. "The first was that their genetic sequence was the best match we could come up with given current genetic specimens."

"And the second?" asked Gerry as he twisted the wheel.

"The frogs were also readily abundant around our labs in Kenya," said Jake with a grin as he tossed the ball again.

"Oy," said Rebecca groaning. "Efficiency always comes at a price my statistics teacher said."

"It wasn't efficiency. We had to produce results when we did because we were under the gun. We were out of money and out of time and if we didn't produce results the dinosaur revivification was going to be permanently shut down. So we cut corners and came up with a solution to prevent Ingen from going into bankruptcy," said Jake. "Of course then the project wound up bringing down Ingen anyway so maybe we should've just given up."

"God I hate hindsight," said Sam with a laugh.

"So don't think about it and get some sleep," said Jake laying down on the deck. "You'll need it when we get to Indigo."

With that he grabbed a hold of Steviesaurus and attached the leash to her, which he promptly tied to the boat before he laid down and within moments was snoring away. The other shrugged and followed suit as the boat continued coasting through the water on its direct course with Indigo.

Later: Jake woke up to some prodding and saw Steviesaurus nudging him. Jake sat up and rubbed his eyes when he saw that they were now beached on Indigo.

"Rise and shine folks," said Jake stretching. The others got up and looked at the jungle waiting for them.

"Maybe we got lucky and missed it and are on the mainland," said Burke hopefully.

"Too bad the GPS says differently," said Gerry with a grin as he took the handheld GPS monitor and his rifle before hopping off the boat. Jake and the others followed suit and advanced into the jungle.

"Where're we going?" asked Burke worriedly as though something was going to jump out of the trees at him.

"You're the one who worked here, you tell us," said Karrie with a grin as she hefted her rifle.

"I clearly never was in this part of the island," said Burke still jumpy.

"What the hell are you so scared of, there's no dinos here," said Jake. "You hear that?"

"What?" asked Burke jumping. "I didn't hear anything."

"That's just it, silence," said Jake. "There are no dinos at all on this island."

At that exact moment, Steviesaurus squawked and began bounding up and down.

"Present company excluded of course," said Jake annoyed. "Now let's go, from what I remember about this island there should be a road up ahead."

After a couple moments of walking, they reached the road and walked down it in silence.

"Have you ever noticed that whenever you're walking through these jungles the first thing you ever encounter is a dirt road?" asked Sam.

"Sam?" asked Karrie.

"Yeah," Sam responded.

"Shut up,"

The others laughed at that as they continued walking down the road in silence until they reached a massive towering wooden gate in front of them.

"Well I'll be damned," said Jake looking at the massive Jurassic Park main gate in front of them. "I didn't think that was here."

"Hammond had many of the buildings located on the two islands built here for quick replacement should something break," said Burke beginning to calm down. He walked over to the side of the gate and opened a small panel revealing the manual release lever. Burke pulled down on it and proceeded to push against the door.

"Well c'mon," he said to the others. They shrugged and shoved against the massive wooden doors as well until finally they managed to budge them open far enough to provide a space to squeeze through one by one. As each entered the main compound, they were greeted by the awe inspiring sight of the Visitors Center surrounded by a multitude of other buildings that were placed haphazardly around the place.

"Ah home sweet home," said Burke happily.

"Let's find the supply depot," said Jake quickly.

"No, I want to check this place out. Now that we'll never have the opportunity to go to Nublar this will be the closest we can get to it," said Rebecca walking towards the Center.

"I don't think this is a good idea," said Jake. "I wasn't a particularly big fan of Nublar and this isn't bringing up any good memories."

"C'mon Jake it'll be fun," said Karrie walking towards the Center as well. Jake groaned and reluctantly followed along. But as he approached them, he could've sworn he saw some nearby leaves rustle unexpectedly.

"What?" asked Gerry noticing him stopping.

"Nothing," said Jake. "Just my imagination playing tricks on me."

With that he entered into the Vistors Center as the leaves shook again. The group entered into the massive lobby of the building to reveal the two skeletons of the tyrannosaurus rex and brachiosaur.

"Wow," said Jeff shaking his head. "What could've been."

"What should've been," Jake grumbled to himself as he looked at the two massive skeletons. "The dinos should've remained skeletons. We shouldn't have brought back these demons of the past."

Steviesaurus looked at the bones confused as Jake laughed and led her up the stairs following the rest. Before he get to the top, however, Steviesaurus began resisting his attempts to lead her as she began growling angrily at the outer doors.

"C'mon you," said Jake pulling on her leash. "I thought there was something out there too, there isn't. Now chill out."

He continued pulling until the little dinosaur relented and followed him as a faint scratching sound was heard near the front door. The group meanwhile was walking down the hallway and past various rooms.

"Where're we going?" asked Gerry.

"The control room via the tour screening room," said Jake. "I need access to a supply manifest among other things."

"Alright, works for me," said Gerry. The group entered into the small theater, which suddenly kicked on and John Hammond came walking towards the screen.

"What the hell?" asked Karrie confused.

"It must've kicked on thanks to the motion sensors," Jake explained. "That way they could cut costs and not have someone in the projection booth when the multiple tours came through here. Right, Burke?"

Burke didn't respond, he just grumbled something as Jake laughed.

"Hello," said Hammond.

"Hello," said Rebecca.

"It's not interactive!" shouted Jake incredulously at her. Rebecca looked at him hurt.

"I'm just playing along," she said. "I can afford to since I'm so young."

Jake groaned at that statement.

"Well fine, fine I guess. But uh, how did I get here?" asked Hammond.

"We filmed you back in San Diego idiot!" shouted Jake with a grin.

"Ouch! John that hurt!"

"Serves you right!" laughed Jeff as he sat down in one of the seats as the rest followed suit. Suddenly the Hammonds began multiplying.

"They're out to get you Jeff!" Karrie laughed.

"Or form their own baseball team," Sam suggested. Silence descended on the group until.

"Oh, Mr. DNA, where did you come from?" asked Hammond.  
"From your blood!" said the DNA strand with the southern accent.

"Oh lord, not Mr. DNA," Gerry groaned holding his head.

"What's wrong with Mr. DNA?" Jake demanded.

"A thousand years ago there were mosquitos just like today. And just like today they fed on the blood of animals, even dinosaurs,"

"I'm still surprised that worked," said Sam.

"Yeah the probability was one in a million, guess luck was on our side," said Karrie.

"Using sophisticated techniques, we extract the preserve's blood from the mosquito and bingo, dino DNA!" said Mr. DNA triumphantly.

"I wish there'd been dramatic music when we'd done it," laughed Jake. "it seemed boring as hell at the time."

"If we looked at DNA strands like these…"

"He's not giving the complete picture of what we went through to create the dinos in the first place. It makes it sound like the project was a piece of cake, it wasn't," said Gerry.

"But it's full of holes. That's where our geneticists take over,"

"At least we got a shout out," said Jake shrugging.

"Thinking machines and supercomputers help break down the strands in minutes and virtually reality allows our geneticists to find the gaps in the DNA sequence," said Mr. DNA.

"Guess I can agree with that being easier said than done. Those holes in the code were numerous and difficult to find," said Jake.

"We use the DNA of a frog to fill in the holes and complete the code. Phew!"

"See, what'd I tell you. West African Frogs," said Jake.

"And now we can create a baby dinosaur," said Mr. DNA.

"Quick, everybody get your legs onto the chair!" shouted Jake. Every looked at him confused but did it before the bars snapped down.

"So what now?" asked Rebecca.

"We wait until the room rotates towards the Control Room and then we leave," said Jake sitting there. Steviesaurus suddenly became agitated again.

"Calm down girl it's just a ride," said Jake rubbing her neck. Nevertheless the dino was still agitated.

"Gerry?" Jake asked.

"Yeah," responded the veterinarian.

"You don't think there's a chance that there are any dinosaurs are on this island that we shipped only to get stuck here in layover after Nublar fell do you?" asked Jake.

"Why?" Gerry asked confused.

"Just humor me," Jake responded.

"I don't know," said Gerry. "It's possible but you'd think people would notice a little fact like that."

"They did pull out of here in a hurry. In the confusion they may have overlooked any dinos being left behind after all it would've only been here for a couple days tops," said Jake. "And that would mean it's essentially been starved for the past two months."

"Yeah but don't forget about the lysine contingency," said Sam.

"So it'd also be half dead, but it could still be alive," Jake surmised.

"Like I said, it's doubtful," said Gerry.

"Hey Burke," said Karrie turning to him. "Shouldn't you have yelled by now?"

When Burke didn't respond, everyone turned to look at him. Burke just sat there shocked, staring straight at the glass window in front of them. Everyone turned to look out the window as Steviesaurus growled louder and louder.

"Oh shit," said Jake shaking his head. "I hate being right all the time."

The others yelled and tore themselves from theirs seats as a Velociraptor came crashing through the glass and into the seating area. The raptor crashed over a couple of seats and stood there, bleeding profusely and having several areas where the skin was peeling off of it, but it was still dangerous. The others stood there by the door with Karrie and Gerry training their weapons on the creature.

"Oh God," said Karrie noticing something. Burke was still there shell shocked in his seat as the raptor hovered right next to him baring its sharp teeth.

"What're you waiting for, take him down!" said Jeff.

"We can't!" Karrie hissed. "We might hit Burke in the process."

"Better he dies by a bullet than be eaten!" said Jeff.

"Whatever you do," said Jake. "You'd better do it fast because I'm willing to bet that he's got a couple of buddies that are probably approaching from another direction. C'mon Rebecca, Sam, Jeff, we've got to get out here."

The others nodded reluctantly as they followed Jake who had had to pick up Steviesaurus as she was still snarling at the raptors.

"Where're we going?" asked Sam as they hurried down the corridor.

"One of the underground bunkers," said Jake. "We'll hold out there because that raptor was on its last legs thanks to the lysine effect. In a day or two, it'll be dead and any of its remaining friends will be too."

The others continued running and emerged into the main lobby where they tore down the steps headed for the door.

"The hell do you think it's doing here?" asked Jeff as they ran underneath the massive 'WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH!' banner and then out the doors and onto the grounds outside.

"Best guess is that we were trying to replenish the stock of raptors on Nublar and it got stuck in layover," said Jake as they ran around the building. They continued walking for a few moments until.

"So where do you think they were keeping it then?" asked Rebecca before she slammed into Jake who had suddenly stopped walking.

"What's the hell?" she said annoyed. Jake said nothing but just stood there staring straight ahead. Rebecca waved her hands in front of his eyes, but all Jake's eyes did was narrow into rage. Rebecca spun around and looked to see a strange complex in front of them with a guard tower, a pen, and two walkways on both sides of it.

"What is it?" asked Rebecca confused.

"It's an exact replica of the Jurassic Park raptor pit," said Sam knowingly before moving on.

"What's the big deal with this thing?" asked Rebecca confused as she followed them. Jake meanwhile just slowly walked up to the pen.

"It's where we normally keep the raptors contained," said Jeff, deflecting her question, as they ran past the open gate leading to the pen.

"Yeah but," began Rebecca.

"Just forget about it," said Jeff. "Let's keep moving."

"What about Jake?" Rebecca asked. "We can't just leave him!"

"He'll be along shortly," Jeff said unsure. "Now let's find a bunker."

The quartet continued on as Jake was left standing there staring at the pen.

Visitors Center: Karrie and Gerry stood there with their rifles still aimed at the raptor as it continued just standing there breathing heavily but not moving.

"Are you sure about this?" said Karrie. "We should shoot and hope for the best."

"Yes," Gerry hissed. "It's gonna drop soon I know it. I'm a vet I can see the signs."

"It's a dinosaur not a dog!" Karrie snapped back.

"Animals are still animals," said Gerry. At that moment the raptor collapsed onto the chairs and laid their motionless.

"You see," said Gerry with a grin. Karrie groaned.

"Fine," she said. "Now can we get Burke and go?"

"Alright," said Gerry with a smile. But before either could enter into the room, the glass shattered again as two more raptors crashed through. One of them went straight for Burke as the other provided cover.

"Fire!" shouted Gerry. Both he and Karrie started shooting but were too late as the farther raptor killed Burke by slashing open his stomach and neck before both were gunned down.

"Oh my God!" shouted Karrie about to throw up looking at the death scene.

"Pull back!" shouted Gerry as he hauled her out of there as two more raptors crashed through into the seats. Both Gerry and Karrie tore down the hallway with the raptors in pursuit. They ran down the steps and out of the building as the raptors continued pursuing them with half-starved looks in their eyes.

Raptor Pit: Jake stood there with Steviesaurus as both looked at the entrance to the pit and it's trees beyond.

"I will never forget this building," said Jake bitterly. "This is what I have waking nightmares of every night, of this pen, of that night, of the night when I saw the dinosaurs for what they truly are. Nothing you can say or do will make me forget this! Do you hear me Steviesaurus? Nothing!"

He held the dinosaur in front of his face that just looked at him with wide eyes. Jake groaned and held the dino under his left shoulder. Looking at the sides of the gate angrily, Jake reared back his right fist and punched the concrete side.

"Ow!" he shouted as he held his hand in pain. Steviesaurus looked at him and gave what could only be a laugh.

"You shut up," said Jake to the dino who continued squawking. He was about to continue heading for the bunker when he heard shots from behind him. Turning around, Jake saw Gerry and Karrie running towards him with the raptors pursuing as quickly as they could, being in such a weakened position.

"Finally," said Jake as his eyes narrowed. "Vengeance."

Steviesaurus growled at the approaching dinos as Jake pulled out his radio.

"Gerry, Karrie?" Jake said into it.

"We're kind of busy here Jake," said Gerry panting heavily.

"Head for the entrance to the raptor pit then duck and cover," said Jake as he began climbing to the top of the pit.

"Cool," said Gerry seeing what he was up to. He and Karrie continued their run towards the gate as Jake climbed until he was right next to the gate. Karrie and Gerry meanwhile ran straight at it only to stop right before it and spin around. The two raptors leapt up into the air right at them only for Karrie and Gerry to drop to the ground causing the raptors to sail overhead and right into the pen. Jake grabbed a hold of the gate and leapt off the edge causing it to slam down shut with him. Jake landed in a heap with Steviesaurus at his feet.

"Wipeout," said Jake as he sat up only to lay down again with a thump.

"Not a bad piece of work," said Gerry hearing the thumping as the raptors kept banging against the door.

"Yeah," said Karrie. "But how long do you think it'll be before they test the fences?"

"They won't," said Jake getting up. "It's imprinted into their minds that those fences shoot electricity and they're not about to test that theory again."

"Yeah but," began Gerry.

"And the fences are electrified," said Jake. "I brushed up on the capabilities of this island before we left and everything here works. They didn't bother to shut down the geothermal power source when they pulled out, which is why we were forced to watch Mr. DNA."

"Ugh," said Gerry shaking his head. "Don't remind me."

"So where's Burke?" Jake asked with a grin. "Still sitting there shell-shocked back in the Center?"

Karrie and Gerry looked downtrodden at that statement.

"We couldn't get to him in time," Karrie said sadly. Jake's grin dropped and his eyes narrowed.

"Goddamnit!" he shouted as he punched the gate. "This isn't fair!"

"Look we feel just as bad as you do," said Gerry. "We should've saved him, but we couldn't. But in the end there was nothing we could do about it."

"Now we know how you feel," said Karrie bitterly.

"Not exactly," said Jake picking up Steviesaurus who honked at him. "You didn't hire him, you didn't know him, and I'm betting you didn't sit idly by as he was eaten alive."

"No," agreed Gerry. "But we still have to face the pain of constantly wondering if there was anything else we could've done."

"Yeah I guess there is that," said Jake distantly as he walked back to the Visitors Center.

"Where're you going?" asked Gerry. "The supplies are back that way."

"I've got to dissect the raptors," said Jake still distantly.

"What? Why?" Karrie asked confused.

"I have to know if they've changed sex or not," said Jake still walking off. "If I don't find out now, the resulting ramifications will be…."

"What?" Gerry demanded.

"You don't want to know," said Jake. "But know this. If we made a mistake about this, every person on Earth is going to pay for it."

With that he left leaving Gerry and Karrie behind as he headed back to the Visitors Center with Steviesaurus.


	7. Dissection and Revelation

Indigo: Jake strode through the front doors of the Visitors Center and through the lobby as he made his way back to the theater. If there were any more dinosaurs left in the building, he didn't care, all he was focused on was determining whether or not the scientists had made a mistake when making the dinosaurs, a mistake that they couldn't have afforded to make. Jake silently walked up the steps with the now silent and apparently apprehensive Steviesaurus still tucked under his right arm. After a couple minutes of walking, he emerged into the blood soaked theater. Already the place had begun to smell, but it was so remote that flies and maggot had yet to make their way into the place.

"I'll be damned Stevie," said Jake aloud as he looked at all the corpses. "It's finally happened. I've become desensitized to violence. It's finally really happened."

Steviesaurus looked up at him and softly squeaked.

"Might as well drag one of them to the lab," said Jake. "He looked up and saw it through the shattered glass. "Well that shouldn't be too hard."

Jake pressed his fingers against the raptors neck to verify it was dead before he walked into the lab and attached Steviesaurus leash to a piece of pipe. Stepping back into the theater, he grabbed a hold of the raptors tail and somehow managed to drag the heavy beast into the lab and onto one of the tables in the room. Jake didn't even bother to prep for any dissection instead he just grabbed a nearby drill.

"Shall we?" asked Jake to Steviesaurus who just looked at him confused.

"Forget it," said Jake. He then turned on the drill and moved it closer and closer to the raptor.

Warehouse: Sam, Jeff, and Rebecca were hauling off several crates on dollies to a truck outside as Gerry and Karrie looked over a map they had found detailing where the supplies were.

"I don't believe this," said Gerry. "There are stacks and stacks of supplies but no ammunition or weapons anywhere. How is this possible?"

"Hammond never was much of a fan of brute force," said Karrie leaning against a crate. "Maybe he didn't have any here."

"Hammond was not an idiot and Robert would've made sure any island that might have dinosaurs would be equipped to deal with it," said Gerry.

"So where do you think they are?" asked Karrie.

"I don't know," said Gerry before noticing something on the map. "Hmmm, I wonder what Jake would have in a warehouse that's all to himself."

"What do you mean?" asked Karrie walking over to stand next to him. Gerry pointed to a warehouse simply titled: Whitacre.

"I don't know," said Karrie confused.

"Let's go find out," said Gerry taking the map and walking off with Karrie in tow.

Lab: Jake stood there covered in blood and guts as he finished dissecting the last raptor. Jake put aside the drill and his syringe after he had drilled deep into the raptors reproductive system to determine their sex. The results had just come through and Jake wandered around to each of the corpses with a pile of clipboards.

"Female," said Jake as he tossed the clipboard onto one of the corpses.

"Female," he said walking around to another corpse.

"Inconclusive," said Jake tossing the third clipboard onto the final raptor and then rubbing his eyes. "Fuck."

He looked around annoyed before seeing Steviesaurus standing on one of the counters with a confused look on its face.

"You're not turning into a guy on me are you?" Jake asked of the thing. "Because if you are that's just gross."

When Steviesaurus continued to look at him bewildered, Jake groaned and untied her from the pipe and picked her up and carried her off.

"Just one last test to perform and that's it," he said to her as they left the building.

Warehouse: Karrie and Gerrie pushed open the massive doors to reveal a warehouse filled with crates.

"What the hell could he possibly be storing in here?" asked Karrie confused.

"Parts for his Interceptor probably," said Gerry as they walked amongst the crates.

"Do you think he'd want us in here? This place might contain his private stuff," said Karrie.

"He would've said that before we arrived on the island," said Gerry. "Now let's open a crate."

"It's your call," said Karrie shrugging. Gerry continued looking at the crates trying to find a good one to open.

"Hey what's this?" Karrie asked confused. A crate lay on the ground apart from the rest that read: PROPERTY OF PACIFIC PHARMACEUTICALS DO NOT TOUCH.

"Okay, you've got my interest piqued," said Gerry. "Jake's talked about them a few times and now he's got a crate from them, this out to be good."

He brought down his crowbar and pried open the crate.

"Let's see if there's any medicine," said Karrie. "We are a little short back at Sorna."

But as the top came off Karrie and Gerry looked at the crate in shock. Inside amongst a bunch of packing material were several machine guns and assault rifles along with a few pistols.

"What the hell?" demanded Gerry confused. "What would a drug company be doing transporting military grade weaponry?"

"And what use would Jake have for any of this?" asked Karrie confused.

"To answer your questions," said Jake emerging from the shadows causing them to jump. "Pacific Pharmaceuticals used to have defense contracts with the military. As a result they received weaponry in return for their services. Upon termination of that contract, John Brown was to dispose of all weaponry currently in possession of his company. However, if those weapons were no longer in his possession then he couldn't very well dispose of them could he? So he shipped them here for me to hold onto. And I've kept them here in anticipation of an event like what would happen at Jurassic Park."

"When did these get shipped here?" asked Gerry looking an automatic rifle over.

"Within 24 hours after Jeffrey's death," said Jake solemnly. "I'd been having premonitions before and that event cemented them. John Brown had practically begged me to get these weapons off of his hands and now I was only too happy to oblige."

Jake looked at the weapons and sighed as he pulled a machine gun out and looked at it as he sighed.

"What now?" asked Gerry.

"I need those two specimens inside of the raptor pit," said Jake solemnly. "I need to know for sure what sex they are. I need to know if they can breed or not. And unfortunately there's only one way to get it."

He released the safety and fumbled to load a clip into it with Steviesaurus still under his arm. After he got it in, Jake headed for the exit.

"Wait," said Gerry chasing after him. "I thought we were going to try and lay off the violence."

"It doesn't matter anymore," said Jake distantly. "They changed the rules of the game and this is a game we can't afford to loose."

"A game huh?" asked Karrie. "That's sounds strange coming from you."

"It's the only way I can wrap my mind around it," said Jake slowly shaking his head. "If I don't…I don't see how I'll be able to cope."

He continued walking in solemn silence towards the raptor pit.

"You're really torn up about this," said Karrie worried for the first time in a long time about their whole situation. Jake said nothing but kept walking in silence.

"Why shouldn't he be?" asked Gerry beginning to wrap his mind around the concept Jake was proposing. "If they can breed…"

"Then we're all at risk," said Jake cutting in. "And I'm not convinced that if they could breed, that the lysine effect would be effectively passed down through the generations."

"Oh my God," said Karrie with wide eyes as she clasped her mouth shut in horror at the thought. "That would mean…"

"That if the Park, Sorna, or Indigo had been on the mainland like was proposed with that amphitheatre back in San Diego, and the dinosaurs escaped, there would be no controlling them. The instant they bred, any advantage we'd have had over them would've effectively been gone. The planet would be theirs, they couldn't be stopped. They'd be like previous owners coming to reclaim what was theirs. Oh sure we might be able to hold them off for a little bit, but they can breed in greater numbers than we can and already have a killer instinct," said Jake. "But hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they can't breed. Maybe Grant and Ian Malcolm were premature in their assertions. But I don't believe any of us can afford to take that chance."

They walked around the raptor pen to face the gate.

"May the world never judge us by the actions we take today," said Jake solemnly as he pressed the button and the gate rose upwards. Jake sighed as roars erupted from the inside beyond the bushes and trees inside as the sounds of feet came closer and closer. Gunfire erupted and then silence.

Lab: "Female and female," said Jake tossing the final two clipboards onto the remaining corpses before leaning against a counter and clasping his hands together in front of his head.

"That's good right?" said Jeff. The rest were in the lab except for Rebecca who was holed up in the bathroom after being unable to handle the sight of all the blood and guts.

"Not necessarily," said Jake picking up one of the clipboards. "This one is inconclusive. Which means two things, either there wasn't enough material to get a good enough sample…or it was in the process of transitioning between the sexes."

The others nodded unsure as well.

"So what do we do?" asked Sam crossing his arms as he sat in one of the rolling chairs.

"Go back to Sorna and obtain more specimens," said Jake simply. "Do more dissections and more research, as well as keep our eye out for any unmarked specimens, stuff like that."

"Right," the others agreed.

"But there's one more thing," said Jake. "Nobody besides us finds out about this. If the workers on the island catch whiff of this, panic and hysteria are going to ensue. We can't afford that, not with dinosaurs around. We have to keep a cool head about this and we'll be fine. In the event that the dinosaurs can breed and _are_ doing so, we are left with only one option available to us."

The others nodded. "Restart the project."

Jake nodded as he drank some water.

"We have had contingency plans for this ever since Jurassic Park was first coming online," the scientist said. "It starts off with lysine deprivation, followed by starvation, and then mopping up the remaining survivors a month later."

"Do you think it'll come to that?" asked Karrie. Jake shrugged.

"I don't know," he said. "If the dinosaurs have bred than we really have no choice. If they have not than we can forget it."

"Why don't we just eliminate the entire stock right now?" asked Karrie. The others laughed at her.

"What?" she said confused.

"We can't just eliminate the dinosaurs without just cause," said Gerry. "They're Ingen's assets, not ours."

"But we're hunting them!" said Karrie.

"Because Ingen has a clause stating that we can eliminate stock in order to ensure that Sorna doesn't become overpopulated," said Jake. "But we needed a reason to justify it, that's why I asked that day. And why I haven't interfered with you guys doing it even though I am beginning to have my own reservations about it."

"You mean we've been following Ingen's orders this whole time?" shouted Karrie. The others nodded.

"Why do you think they haven't responded to what we're doing here?" asked Gerry. "Because what we're doing is perfectly legal and because they're burying it at the same time."

"If we were doing something that violated Ingen policy Peter Ludlow would be banging down the door right now, not letting us do what whatever the hell we want with these islands," said Jake incredulously.

"Do the guys back on the island know this?" asked Karrie. The group shook their heads.

"No and they never will," said Jake. "Between this and the dinos breeding they'd all completely loose it and become the creatures they're currently hunting to desperately prove that they aren't."

"You're not giving them enough credit," said Karrie. "They can handle this, humans are stronger than this!"

"No," said Jake. "They're not. None of us are. None of us ever will be. No matter what we do, we're all going to end up dying by our own hands."

"How can you say that?" asked Karrie beginning to tear up.

Because all it takes is one bad day to drive the sanest man alive to lunacy, just one bad day," said Jake forcefully. "We tried to control nature and it is fighting back. Nublar falling, the dinosaurs breeding, it's all like a giant rubber band snapping back after being stretched too far. All we can do is sit back and wait for the inevitable conclusion."

"Well then here's a thought. Why don't we just leave?" demanded Karrie. "Leave all of this behind us and just move on!"

"We can't!" Jake shot back. "Because if we leave and they gain control of Sorna, where do you think they're going to go after that? They'll head right for the mainland and WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN!"

"How do we know that?" asked Karrie. "They might be content to stay on Sorna!"

"No," said Jeff suddenly saddened. "They won't."

"Yeah you're right," said Jake to Jeff. "And that's why we can't just leave. We all saw what happened to those mestizos with our own eyes. We can't let that happen again."

The others looked at each other in a strange knowing way as they each nodded.

"Now what're you hiding from me?" Karrie demanded. "I thought there weren't any more secrets between us!"

"I suppose she does deserve to know," said Gerry finally. "She's in as deep as we are now."

Jake nodded and shoved off of the counter before heading for the control room followed by the others.

"Where're you going?" Karrie said following them out of the room and the dead raptors.

"To the truth," said Sam.

The group filed into the room and Jake sat down at one of the consoles and powered it up. He flipped from folder to folder before coming across one buried in Quarantined Computer Viruses. Jake clicked on a file in the folder labeled Y2K and it popped open revealing a screen reading: CLASSIFIED PROJECTS: NO UNAUTHORIZED ACCESSS ALLOWED. ACCESSING THIS FILE HAS ALREADY SENT A MESSAGE TO THE ADMINISTRATOR. Jake looked over to the empty administrators chair with a grin before mock saluting.

"Here's to you Ray," he said. Rather than entering in a username and password, Jake simply clicked continue and instantly a powerpoint presentation powered up and Jake flipped it to the big screen before walking up to it with a remote and a laser pointer.

"Admittedly you probably aren't on the Need to Know List," said Jake. "But considering how screwed up the command chain is right now, you probably fit in. At any rate it hardly matters so get ready for a horror story unlike any other, but remember that this is real."

Jake pressed a button and a screen came up simply reading: Incident: A-1.

"When we first started moving dinosaurs onto Island Nublar, we had breakdowns like you wouldn't believe. Fences would fail, the power would suddenly blackout, motion sensors would suddenly quit; you already know all of this," said Jake as he flipped through some slides.

"What you don't know, what very few people know, is that initially we shipped three deinonychosaurs to the island. Call it a trial run for future carnivores to be imported to the island," said Jake as he pressed the remote and an image popped up of the three deadly dinos being airlifted into a pen.

"They lived there in peace for three weeks in their pen along the coast," said Jake as another snapshot popped up clearly taken from the beach looking inward at the fence where the three deinonychosaurs stood looking out at the ocean with solemn glances.

"Admittedly at the time that looked bizarre, but we shrugged it off that they knew where they were born and were looking to it," said Jake. He pressed the remote and an image sprung up of the Visitors Center completely in the dark near the middle of the night.

"At the end of that third week, power failed again on Isla Nublar," said Jake. "When it came back on three hours later, there was a hasty search to make sure that all the dinosaurs were still accounted for."

Jake pressed a button and an image popped up showing dots all over the island inside the various pens with the words: Motion Tracker in the lower right hand corner.

"Everything was accounted for, _except_ for the three deinonychosaurs. The motion sensors indicated that their pen was completely empty," said Jake. "After rebooting the sensors, the same results came, three dinosaurs were unaccounted for. It's not as though they weren't in their cage, they weren't even on the damn island!"

An image popped up revealing a list of dinosaur names and numbers and next to deinonychosaur it read zero, while down at the bottom the numbers read: 12 dinosaurs accounted for, 15 on hand.

"Naturally the island went into a panic so John Hammond ordered the immediate search of the deinonychosaur pen. Six hours later and there wasn't a single sign of any of them and_ no_ break in the fence either. It was then that someone recalled the dinosaurs constantly looking out at the ocean and realization set in. Running to the coast, and thank God they got there in time, because the scientists discovered dinosaur footprints leading to the ocean, but they were slowly vanishing thanks to high tide," said Jake. A photo popped up of the footprints.

"So what did you do?" asked Karrie.

"Naturally we used what helicopters and boats we had to do a sweeping search of the nearby area. We found nothing," said Jake. Some shots appeared of helicopters and boats sweeping the area.

"So eventually we gave up and figured that they all drowned," said Jake.

"So that's what you're afraid of," said Karrie incredulously. "You're afraid that they'll swim off only to drown off the coast?"

"Yes," said Jake nodding. "If the story had ended then and there, but it didn't."

Karrie just looked at him nonplussed. Jake pressed a button showing the front page of a Costa Rican newspaper.

"Three weeks later we got wind off a vacationing couple that got torn in half and eaten somewhere in the jungle. On the whole this really wasn't that strange, it's been known to happen before. However, when the results came in from the autopsies they couldn't link the deaths to any known animals," said Jake. "At that point we began speculating that it might have had something to do with Ingen's operations."

Jake pressed a button on the remote and an image popped up of a research site in Costa Rica with tents set up in the middle of the jungle.

"A couple days later a research team from the United States conducting research on the various species in the area, heard a strange roar emanating from the jungle. They attempted to investigate but could not determine its source," said Jake. "John Hammond learned about this and agreed to fund the rest of their research if they turned over any and all information about this creature that they had gathered. This is that roar."

Jake pressed a button and a roar emanated over the speakers in the room.

"My God," said Karrie suddenly. "That's a deinonychosaur!"

"Yes," said Jake nodding. "Somehow they had survived what we would later term: The Crossing. There were now dinosaurs on the mainland that had survived swimming across part of the Pacific Ocean. They had already killed two people and we couldn't afford to let them kill anymore."

"So what did you do?" asked Karrie beginning to feel her legs get weak.

"Gerry, Sam, Jeff, Henry, and I went to go track that thing down," said Jake. "And put it out of commission."


	8. A1

Anguirus111 Note: This chapter is just one big flashback.

Isla Nublar, January 10, 1989: A twenty-three year old Jake crouched down on the beach of Nublar looking down at the dinosaur tracks with narrowed eyes as he contemplated the implications of what had happened. Sighing he stood up and took off his sunglasses and hung them in the upper pocket of his flannel shirt.

"Well they're definitely gone, I can tell you that," he said shaking his head humbly. "They climbed up and over the fence to leave no easy marks for us to find. Would've gotten away with it too if not for them misjudging the tides. Wonder if Pete is that smart?"

"That's not funny," said John Hammond standing next to him all decked out in white. All around them were scientists and personnel searching the beaches for any more tracks.

"Well what do you want me to tell you?" Jake asked shrugging. "That they left and came back? That's not going to happen. Face it Jimbo, they're long gone by now."

"Where do you think they went?" asked Hammond. "Back to Sorna?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Jake. "But with that newspaper report from Costa Rica…"

"There's no definitive proof that what happened is related to what we're doing," said Hammond fiercely. "That tape recording from that research team should confirm it for sure or not. It'll be here soon, then we'll have our answer."

"John," said Jake walking past him to leave before stopping by him briefly. "This is only indicative of a much larger problem. Putting vicious dinosaurs on the coast is a bad idea, and at the moment there are no places for personnel on this island to go if the dinos break loose. I've told you this before and I believe it now holds more relevance than ever. The lysine project and concrete bunkers have to be implemented sooner rather than later. But it's your call and I'm just the messenger."

Hammond remained silent as Jake prepared to leave when Ray ran up to them out of breath.

"We just got the recording in," he said. Jake and Hammond looked at him solemnly.

"Play it," said Hammond after a couple moments of silence. Ray pressed the button on the recorder. A roar emanated from the recorder followed by shouts of confusion and fear before Ray shut it off.

"Think about it John," said Jake leaving. "You need to reach a decision before it's too late."

He then put on his sunglasses and walked off to the waiting gas powered Jeep and took off down the road. Hammond looked at the tracks, the tide, the fences, and the ocean with the slowly rising sun. He picked up a stick and growled before launching it at the fence where it crackled and flung sparks as the stick went up in flames.

"Let's go," he said to Ray who had dove to the ground after the stick exploded. Ray got up and brushed himself off as he followed Hammond to the tour vehicle and it took off down the road.

Visitors Center: Jake and Muldoon sat in the Control Room looking disgusted at Nedry who was shoveling in all the candy in sight that was on his desk.

"You're going to kill yourself eating those things," Jake shouted to him. Nedry looked at him annoyed as he continued eating.

"Maybe we should feed him to the dilophosaurs," said Muldoon with a grin.

"Probably save on food costs," said Jake shrugging.

"Laugh it up," said Nedry. "Maybe I'll implant a sleeper virus in the system so when you log on it'll shut down all of the fences."

"Nedry," said Jake swiveling to look at him. "I really don't think we need your help to make this island fall apart. Case in point."

Jake pointed upwards as the lights began flickering on and off. Muldoon groaned and grabbed his rifle as headed for the raptor pit. Jake sighed and leaned back farther in his chair as the lights went out and then charged back on full force.

"Well I'm headed back for Sorna," said Jake to no one in particular. "There at least things work there."

"No you're not," said Hammond walking in with Ray. "You're going to Costa Rica."

"What for?" asked Jake.

"To reacquire our missing assets," said Hammond.

"I'm a scientist not a game hunter," said Jake. "I couldn't track a creature if my life depended on it."

"Well it does now so get prepped," said Hammond. "You made it, you deal with it."

"Am I the only one going?" Jake asked.

"No," said Hammond. "Jeff, Sam, Henry, and Gerry will accompany you."

"Why not Robert?" protested Jake. "He's the game warden expert!"

"He stays here in the event that the power fails again," said Hammond. "Now go, a chopper's waiting."

Jake groaned and got ready to leave.

"Don't worry Jake, I'll pay you extra," said Hammond. Jake paused by the door.

"I don't care about money, just implement the lysine project and build bunkers in this place," he said leaving.

"I will," Hammond promised. "The others will meet you in San Jose, but Henry is flying in from San Diego and will catch up with you later."

"Then maybe we will survive this," said Jake leaving. He walked down the hallways nonplussed with his hands in his jacket pockets when suddenly a voice interrupted him.

"Hey Jake," said Jeffrey. Jake grinned.

"I was wondering when you'd get here," said Jake.

"Yeah and not a moment too soon," said Jeffrey. "Thanks again for the job, I can't stress how grateful I am."

"What're friends for," said Jake as he pushed open the double doors and emerged into the daylight sun, walking down to the jeep parked below.

"True dat, true dat," said Jeffrey nodding. "I don't know how I'll be able to repay you."

"Just be careful," said Jake. "Don't take anything lightly on this island. It may look like a wonderful place to be, and it is, especially by being surrounded by creatures that haven't been on this earth in a long time, but don't forget how deadly they are. Just watch your back and you should be fine. I'll see you around bud," said Jake getting into the jeep. He hit the accelerator the jeep tore off on the road leaving Jeffrey behind in the dust.

"You watch yourself as well old friend," said Jeffrey before leaving to move in his stuff.

Costa Rica: The helicopter touched down in San Jose and Jake got out with a backpack and a taser rifle along with a tranq gun. Across the parking lot was Sam, Jeff, and Gerry who were clustered around a Land Rover.

"Hey Jake," they all said with a lack of enthusiasm.

"This is so stupid," said Jake throwing his stuff in the back before all got in the vehicle with Gerry driving.

"Yeah," said Gerry. "We're hardly experienced for something like this."

"So why is he putting us up to this?" asked Sam confused in the backseat.

"Because Hammond wants to maintain excellent public relations with the outside world regarding the dinosaurs," said Jake both condescendingly and disgusted. "If he sent armed soldiers to this research camp, they'd suspect something was amiss and investigate and find out the truth. It's a PR nightmare, oh no! Ugh."

"You're saying Hammond is going to sacrifice us just so he can maintain a perfect public image?" asked Sam incredulously.

"Oh yeah I forgot you were new," said Gerry. "That's generally how conglomerates work: kill the worker before you humiliate the company."

Awkward silence descended on the group as the car drove on in silence.

Research Camp: The Rover roared to a halt outside the camp and the four scientists got out of the vehicle as the lead scientist of the camp approached them.

"Game faces people," said Jake with a big false grin. The other three groaned before smiling as well.

"Hi I'm Albert Nietsnie, call my Alby," said the lead scientist.

"I'm Jake Whitacre, this is Gerry Harding, Jeff Spengler, and Sam Stone," said Jake introducing the other members of the party.

"Welcome to our camp," said Alby. "If you don't mind my asking, what is Ingen's interest in our little project? I mean, I love the fact that Ingen is financing our research, but over one roar? That seems rather abrupt."

"John Hammond is funding your research so you won't be asking those questions," said Jake dropping the charade immediately. "We'll conduct our business and you do yours. We won't interfere with you and you shouldn't interfere with us. Believe me when I say it's for your own good."

"Alright just asking," said Alby holding up his hands in defeat.

"It's okay," said Jake with a grin. "You probably don't want to know the truth anyway."

"Can you give me a hint?" asked Alby as the group advanced towards the tents with their gear.

"Sure," said Jake nodding. "Using advanced technology and ancient DNA, we created a dinosaur that escaped from its pen and is now running loose through the jungle."

Silence descended at that statement. And then everyone burst into laughter.

"Ah, ha, ha, ha, that's a good one!" said Alby wiping a tear from his eyes.

"Yeah," said Jake chuckling nervously. "Gotta admit it was kind of hard coming up with a crazy enough retort."

"Well you succeeded," said Alby still laughing. "Well good luck catching this 'dinosaur'. We'll be eating dinner soon so if you want to join us, you're perfectly welcome to"

With that he walked off and the laughter amongst the four others abruptly died down.

"If you only knew," said Jake shaking his head as the scientist left.

"Why'd you tell him the truth?" asked Jeff confused as the group continued heading for the tents specifically set up for them.

"Because I knew he wouldn't believe it," said Jake simply. "Hell no one would really. Now he doesn't believe it and he's off our back."

"True dat, true dat," said Sam nodding. They walked over to their individual tents and chucked their gear inside.

"So how're we supposed to track this thing?" asked Jeff. "It's in its natural element after all and I've only really hunted deer before this."

Jake reached into his bag and pulled out a portable motion sensor.

"This will detect the tracking device implanted in the creature and ping when it is within fifty feet," Jake explained. "The faster it pings the closer the creature is."

"How do we it's even around?" asked Gerry. "It could easily be long gone by now provided there's only one."

"There is," said Jake. "I got a good look at the autopsy photos of the couple and there was just too much of them left to account for more than one creature. And they were killed only a couple miles from here down on the beach so believe me when I say that this is the dinosaur's new hunting ground."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll somehow tear the tracking device loose," Sam speculated.

"Yeah seeing the thing go into catatonic shock would make thing easier but I don't see it happening anytime soon," said Jake as he walked with the others to the dining gathering. But as they were leaving, the device pinged.

"Oh shit," said Jake looking at the thing, but just as abruptly as that the pinging died.

"Well I guess that answers that question," said Jeff trying to bring some humor to the situation, it didn't work.

"All the same I think I'll bring my rifle to the table," said Gerry.

"Yeah me too," said Sam. The others ran back to their tents and grabbed their weapons before heading for the gathering of scientists.

"Guys, this is Jake, Jeff, Sam, and Gerry," said Alby to the other fifteen scientists. They all mumbled hello before they went back to eating.

"Wait, are you Jake Whitacre?" one of the female scientists asked across from him.

"Yeah, what of it?" asked Jake. The scientist shrugged.

"Heard about what you did with that dodo, not too shabby," she said.

"Yeah well I just wish it had survived longer," said Jake grabbing some noodles. "It died moments after birth, but for a moment a dodo did walk on the Earth again."

"So are you here to watch over us now that Ingen is footing the bill?" the scientist asked again.

"No," said Jake. "We're just here on a quick specimen run that's all."

"You sure came out of your way to come all the way down here from San Diego," said the scientist.

"When you're a scientist, you kind of loose any semblance of a life," Jake responded.

"Isn't that true," said the scientist. "I have a younger sister I haven't seen in ages since I got this job."

"It's just an occupational hazard I guess," said Jake nodding.

"I'm Sarah Steferson," said the scientist holding out her hand.

"Jake Whitacre," said Jake shaking her hand. "But I guess you already knew that."

"Yeah I guess I did," she said with a smirk.

"So what're you doing here?" Jake asked. Sarah shrugged.

"Research on the various flora and fauna, we're trying to discover any new drugs that might help back home," she said drinking some water.

"I have a friend who does that," said Jake. "He's quickly working his way up the corporate ladder at Pacific Pharmaceuticals."

"Really, that's where I want to work after this research is done!" said Sarah excitedly. "Who is it?"

"His name's John Brown," said Jake simply. But before Sarah could respond with more questions, wind blew everywhere as a helicopter roared overhead and landed nearby.

"Now what?" demanded Alby as the wind continued blowing fiercer than ever as an individual got out along with some gear before the chopper with Ingen blazed on the side tore off into the nighttime sky. Jake laughed as the silhouetted person tried to carry his gear but couldn't and dropped it everywhere.

"This isn't funny Jake, come help me," said Henry Wu easily identifying the laugh despite the relative darkness. Jake groaned and got up and walked over to him along with the rest of his team and Alby.

"Who is this?" Alby asked confused.

"Albert Nietsnie meet Henry Wu, chief scientist of Ingen," said Gerry.

"Dr. Wu," said Alby nodding. Henry nodded back.

"Sorry about the entrance, but I couldn't arrive in time to meet up with the rest back at the airport so the copter brought me right here after I landed back in San Jose," said Henry.

"It's alright," said Alby. "We're used to having unexpected visitors drop in from our main HQ, this is no different. Welcome to our camp and we've set up a tent for you near your friends. Well, dinner is just about over so we may as well turn in for the night. See you in the morning."

"Yeah," said Jake watching him leave. "Actually no you won't."

"Yeah," said Gerry grabbing some of Henry's gear. "Can't afford to have them find out the quarry we're after."

"Crap Henry what the hell do you bring?" asked Sam as he hefted another heavily filled bag.

"Oh the essentials," said Henry. "Chemistry sets, test tubes, manuals, and every single document we have on the deinonychosaur, both our information and other scientific journals."

"We have the tracker," Jeff complained. "Isn't that good enough?"

"If you want to walk around for months looking for that thing then fine," said Henry. "But I'd rather know where it is and go to it rather than have it come to us."

"Makes sense," said Sam. "Hanging around here is not my idea of a vacation."

"Right," said Gerry. "So get some sleep, we'll all need it in the morning."

Morning: As the scientists woke up, they soon came to the realization that the Ingen personnel had already taken off. Although mystified by their quick departure, their work and Hammond's money drew them off from investigating further. Farther away the team was cutting their way through the rainforest trying to locate their quarry.

"You know, I'm just going to say it. Only an idiot would actually hunt a deinonychosaur," said Jeff.

"We're idiots, so what's your point?" Gerry asked pushing back another fern.

"That was it I guess," said Jeff shrugging.

"Henry, how're things going on your end?" Gerry asked.

"So far so good," said Henry yawning before slightly grinning. "I can definitely tell you that the deinonychosaur is not in this area."

The others groaned.

"Thanks Henry, thanks," said Gerry shaking his head.

"Just doing my job," he said with a laugh. Suddenly the tracker went off.

"Quick, hide!" shouted Jake as everyone swung up their weapons to the ready. The group huddled behind two nearby trees as the scanner continued beeping.

"It is very close," said Jake as the tracker was beeping very quickly.

"Yeah but from where?" asked Gerry.

"Let's just start shooting!" said Jeff.

"No!" shouted Jake. "We don't have enough ammo to pull it off. And these darts don't come cheap either!"

Silence descended on the group as Henry began waving a strange metal bar through the air.

"And what the hell are you doing?" Jake asked. Henry shrugged.

"Just testing the atmosphere and see if I can't get a scent of the thing," said Henry.

"And if you can't?" asked Gerry.

"Then it's downwind from us and we'd be dead before any possible conclusion I could ever reach," said Henry. The others remained silent as Henry continued with his work. A couple moments later and his equipment beeped.

"Got it!" he said triumphantly. "He's at one o'clock!"

"Let's roll!" said Jake. The group made a beeline through the forest as they advanced closer and closer to the dinosaur as the tracker continued beeping before Jake shut it off.

"Can't be much farther," he said simply.

"Why hasn't it moved?" Jeff asked.

"Probably dead," Sam surmised hopefully.

"Do you smell something burning?" Jake asked. The other sniffed and air and nodded before quickening their pace. Soon they could hear the roar of flames and see smoke high in the sky before finding themselves confronted with a burning Mestizo village.

"Oh my God! What the hell happened?" said Henry beginning to feel sick. Dead bodies lay all over the village, every one of them ripped savagely apart. Men, women, children, dogs, all were brutally slashed and eaten.

"There's only one thing that could account for this much devastation," said Jake simply. "And for once, it ain't humans."

Suddenly, an inhuman roar pierced the air and a door to one of the huts burst outward amongst the flames and through the gutted door appeared the deinonychosaur with a blood drenched mouth that was dripping everywhere.

"What do we do?" Jeff asked unsure. Jake angrily snapped the safety off of his gun.

"Our job," he said simply. The deinonychosaur growled and charged straight at them as the team opened fire. Dart slammed into the beast and it dropped like a rock before skidding to a halt in front of them.

"So that's it?" asked Jeff angrily. "All of this destruction and all we can do is to stand by and let if live?"

"It's our job," said Jake grimly. "And it's all we can do. Someone call in Hammond, and let's check for any remaining survivors."

The team moved out into the remains of the village as Henry took out his satellite phone and dialed Ingen's local office in San Jose.

"I found a live one!" shouted Jeff after a couple minutes of searching. The others ran over and found a mestizo drenched in blood with a massive cut across his chest with which blood was flowing freely.

"He's in shock," said Jake trying to remember his human physiology.

"No shit," said Gerry annoyed as he tried to prop up the mestizo's head.

"El Diablo, El Diablo, El Diablo," he kept saying. "No es possible! Es el Diablo!"

"He's not going to make it," said Sam feeling his pulse. "He's too far gone."

"What's he saying?" Henry asked meeting up with them.

"The Devil, how is this possible, the devil is not supposed to exist, and yet I saw him with my own two eyes. Mother of God," said Jeff translating. Jake's gaze snapped upwards as he looked at the drugged dinosaur nearby. He opened his mouth to say something but remained silent. Instead he pulled out a dart gun and loaded one of the darts from his rifle into it.

"What're you doing?" asked Sam.

"Giving him some relief from the pain," said Jake simply.

"That'll kill him, it's designed for dinosaurs not people!" said Jeff.

"Relief is still relief," said Jake. "If it were me in his position, I'd want the same thing."

"I can't say I agree with this," said Sam.

"What choice do we have? If he starts blabbing about the dinosaurs two things could happen, people would find out about the DRP and sue or arrest us, or he blabs about it and is labeled a nutcase when he's actually telling the truth," said Jake.

"I guess you're right," said Sam. "But it doesn't mean I'm going to feel any better about it."

"No one does, but it has to be done," said Jake. He pointed the gun at the mestizo's arm before looking at him in the eyes.

"I'm sorry. This never should have happened," said Jake. He fired.

Present Day: "Sufficed to say, no one else survived the village onslaught," said Jake leaning back against a desk as the powerpoint concluded with photos of the devastated village and a final image of a newspaper reading: SCIENTISTS DISCOVER VILLAGE SLAUGHTERED, GROUP OF JAGUARS BELIEVED RESPONSIBLE.

"The officials never found out the truth and we got away, relatively scotch free," said Jake. "There were a couple members of the tribe off attending school elsewhere and Hammond set them up for life under the pretense of us finding it and feeling terrible about it. Admittedly we were however…"

"I get the idea," said Karrie completely in shock about it all. "I had no idea about any of this."

"Yeah," said Gerry. "Well I hope you now realize why we cannot just leave Sorna, and why the lysine contingency is so important. We cannot afford to let any dinosaurs not have it otherwise what happened at that village ever occur again."

"Yes, because if one dinosaur can wipe out twenty two people in less than a week, imagine an army of them," said Sam rubbing his hands nervously.

"Exactly," said Jake shutting off the projector with the remote. "Which is why I need specimens and I need them now. I'm not willing to wait around until it's too late to do anything about it. I don't want to see a repeat of A-1."

"A-1?" asked Karrie.

"The designation we gave the first dinosaur ever to escape to the mainland. It was the first and with any luck the last," said Gerry.

"Yeah so saddle up, we're going home," said Jake.

"What about them?" asked Jeff pointing to all of the remains left behind, including Burke's.

"Strangely enough, we do have body bags down in storage, zip up Burke in one of them, but leave the rest here to rot because I don't plan on returning here anytime soon," said Jake leaving. The others nodded as Jake grabbed Steviesaurus off of the counter and headed for the bathrooms. He knocked on the women's door.

"Rebecca we're leaving," said Jake.

"Coming," came the muffled reply. The door opened a moment later revealing Rebecca who looked terrible with her clothes a mess and her hair looking like it had blown outwards.

"Looking good kid," said Jake trying to put a positive spin on it.

"Shut up," said Rebecca stumbling off. Jake held up his free arm in defeat before Steviesaurus craned her head down and vomited all over his shoes.

"Thanks," said Jake to the thing. "Thanks a lot. Ugh."

Jake shifted her wait and then proceeded down the hallway with his shoes squishing along the way. Then a half hour later, they were headed back to Sorna.

"Hope Stracken's kept the island in one piece," said Gerry with a grin. The others shrugged, but a few hours later as they approached the island, smoke rose high into the sky.

"Oh shit," said Gerry. As the boat finally got closer, they could all see that Isla Sorna was on fire.


	9. Rising Tensions

Sorna: Flames rose high into the sky as the team ran to the fields of agama beans and soy beans.

"What the hell is going on?" asked Gerry confused as the entire field was light aflame.

"I don't know," said Jake. A roar was heard from behind them as a jeep came to a halt and Stracken came out and walked towards them.

"Oh hi guys," he said. "I didn't realize you were back."

"What the hell're you doing?" demanded Gerry grabbing him by the collar.

"Oh, yeah that's right you wouldn't know," said Stracken cryptically.

"Know what? We've only been gone three days, what the hell happened!" said Sam.

"We had an incident," said Stracken simply.

"What kind of incident?" asked Gerry. "Did a dragon get loose or something?"

"Ha, good one," Stracken said. "No, we had an incident with the triceratops."

"Go on," said Jake. Stracken grimaced.

"I don't know if you know this or not, but we're running on lysine, very low. I'm talking low to the point of we're not have any more in three weeks," said Stracken.

"Yeah," said Jake grimly. "That's why we grabbed all we could from Indigo."

"Too bad our main supply of lysine depends on incoming shipments from the mainland," Gerry reminded them. "Shipments, which we are no longer going to get thanks to Ingen cutting off all ties with this island."

"So anyway, we decided to start rationing the lysine. We would split it up into deciding which animals get it when on a three turn cycle," said Stracken. "One of the animals we cut was the triceratops. What we didn't realize was how deprived of lysine some of them were. The second day after you left, one of them went ballistic and actually managed to smash through the electrified fence surrounding its pen and escaped into the island. It caused relatively minor damage throughout the island on its rampage. Rather than confront the beast head on, we decided to see where it was going. While it did meander a bit, its ultimate destination was here so when we finally caught up with it, what was it doing? Eating all the crops in the area," said Stracken crossing his arms and leaning against the jeep.

"Why would it do that?" Karrie asked.

"Think about it," said Stracken. "What is heavily present in agama and soy beans that the dinosaurs would want so badly? And no the answer isn't protein."

Silence descended on the group as they thought it out before Jake's eyes went wide open and he covered his mouth before staring out at the burning.

"Oh damn," he said suddenly. "I wonder why this didn't occur to me before."

"What?" demanded Karrie. "What is it?"

"Agama beans and soy beans are both lysine rich," said Rebecca cutting in.

"That's right," said Stracken with Jake nodding in agreement. "It came here to load up on lysine."

"So wait," said Karrie. "Why are you burning the crops, couldn't we harvest them for their lysine and replenish our supply?"

"Wouldn't work," said Jake shaking his head. "The only way the dinosaurs could get enough lysine would be if they ate a lot of it and we simply did have the time or the supplies to do it."

"So why not plant the crops in their pens?" asked Rebecca.

"No," said Gerry decisively. "We are the ones who regulate the lysine supply, not them. If they can get access to all the lysine they could ever want, then we've lost control over this island."

"As for why we're burning it, that's in keeping with the contingency plan in case of evacuation," said Stracken. "The part where the dinosaurs are cut off from any solution that would allow for them to survive longer than the lysine contingency would allow."

"So who planted these crops?" Jake asked. "I know they weren't here when we first surveyed it, I made sure of that."

"It did take some digging," Stracken admitted. "But I eventually uncovered the answer just a few hours ago."

"Who?" asked Jake really wanting to know. Stracken looked at him nonplussed.

"Take a wild guess," he said. Jake groaned.

"I knew he'd find a way around the lysine contingency I just knew it!" Jake shouted to the heavens. "Way to go John, you finally got past me on that one. Oy."

"Wait why would Hammond not want the lysine contingency to work?" Karrie asked confused as the group headed over to Stracken's jeep and crammed in as the vehicle roared off back to the docks.

"Hammond hated the lysine contingency," said Sam. "He constantly put off approving it and only after Jake strong armed him did he reluctantly decide to implement it."

"I didn't know that," Karrie admitted. "Are you sure?"

"Think about it this way, why didn't Hammond simply wait out the dinosaurs until the lysine contingency kick in?" Jake asked. "Because he wanted the island working as soon as possible so members from Sorna could come in and give the dinosaurs' lysine before they all died."

"Hey, where's Burke?" Stracken cut in suddenly. "Is he back at the boat?"

"Turns out we had more trouble than we bargained for back on Sorna," said Gerry angrily.

"Let me guess, raptor's right?" Stracken asked.

"Yeah," said Jake. "How?"

Stracken shrugged as the jeep bounced over a bump in the road. "I found some records after you guys took off indicating that we'd shipped them over there when I was searching for who approved planting the beans. But by that point it seemed too late to warn you about it as if there were still alive you'd probably encountered them by then."

"It's okay," said Jake. "By then it was too late to do anything about it."

"Yeah," said Stracken. "You're probably right."

"Ingen's going to hate another lawsuit," said Jeff in the back.

"There won't be a lawsuit," said Jake.

"Why?" asked Karrie confused.

"He's the only surviving member of his family," said Jake. "In effect, his family lineage is now 'extinct'."

"I guess that would explain his jitteriness," said Jeff.

"So what're you going to do?" asked Stracken.

"Tell Ingen and have him and then bury him," said Jake shrugging, still a little perturbed by his lack of feeling towards the whole issue.

"I guess it _would_ be the humane thing to do," said Stracken. "Speaking of which…"

While still driving he reached under his seat and retrieved a packet of papers and tossed them onto Jake's lap.

"Latest recall notice," he said. Jake rifled through it.

"Karrie, Jeff, enjoy your new lives," said Jake. Jeff and Karrie embraced happily after hearing this as the jeep pulled to a stop at the docks.

"Wait," said Karrie. "Will you be okay without us?"

"Yeah we'll be fine," said Jake. "Like old times right guys?"

"God I hope not," said Gerry as they all got out of the jeep.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jake demanded as Rebecca laughed at their outburst, which caused her empty stomach to hurt.

"Nairobi, August 29, 1988," said Gerry simply.

"Oh," said Jake with realization as the walked onto the boat.

"Yeah," said Gerry nodding.

"Well don't wind up in any mine shafts with me then," said Jake simply as he began unbuckling the crates.

"You do remember what specimen you were so desperate to obtain before that shaft collapsed don't you?" asked Gerry. Jake glared at him.

"Yes, yes I do," he said bitterly and left it at that as he instantly was silent.

"Sorry Jake, I shouldn't have brought it up," said Gerry with regret. Jake just nodded solemnly as he pushed the crates up onto a dolly and rolled them off.

"What specimen was it?" asked Karrie.

"Velociraptor," said Gerry. "It contained the code for one of the deadliest that we'd ever run across. Jake wanted it to kill off the raptor population on Nublar because he felt there were too many on the island and he didn't want them to gain control of Nublar. So he made it and shipped it off, and it did just that. But not before it killed Jeffrey," said Gerry as he too took a crate and wheeled it off of the boat.

"It seems like he's always been confronted with that image," she said grabbing a crate.

"Now you know why he's often so bitter," said Gerry. "Can you imagine being reminded of your greatest fault day in and day out? It's enough to drive any man mad."

"Do you think Jake is mad?" asked Karrie. Gerry shot her a look.

"Just asking," she said. "I'm leaving anyway and I really want to know your opinion."

"Jake is the sanest man I know," said Gerry. "Even if he does go over the edge, he'll have rightly earned it. In the past three months he's been assailed with more burdens than most people face in an entire lifetime. The fact that he hasn't lost it speaks testaments to his mental psyche than anything else. The death of his best friend, Ingen suddenly collapsing, the loss of his 'girlfriend', dinosaurs running loose, this island falling apart all around him, an uncertain future, it's incredible! And yet he wakes up and goes to work every day and does his job when any lesser man would've given up."

"Yeah," agreed Karrie. "But soon he'll experience burnout, there's no avoiding it."

"You're probably right," said Gerry. "But until then he's the only hope we've got for restoring normalcy on this island."

"You want go have another go at hunting down something before I leave?" Karrie asked swinging up her rifle.

Gerry shook his head. "I seem to have temporarily lost interest in it. Something about being reminded of those mestizos seems to have taken the fight out of me."

"Fine," said Karrie disappointed. "I guess I do have some packing to do."

"Hey Jake," said Jeff. Jake looked up from his work and stared at him silently. "What should I tell the guys back at Ingen regarding what's going on here regarding the dinosaurs."

"The truth," said Jake simply. "What else is there?"

"Yeah but-," began Jeff.

"Look," said Gerry butting in. "They clearly don't care so lying isn't going to do us any good because then they'll think something more is going on when it isn't. So just tell them the truth and you'll be set free."

"I'd keep quiet about the A-1 incident," Sam reminded them. "Ingen is in no way linked to that incident and they will fight to keep it that way."

"Right," said Karrie. "Look I'll miss you guys. It's been fun…for the most part."

"Yeah we'll miss you two," said Sam throwing a box into a truck parked at the dock. "But at least you'll be off this blasted island and can get a decent night's sleep."

"Yeah," said Karrie. "Too bad I'll be out of a job, probably for awhile."

"How so?" asked Sam as he slammed the door shut on the back of the vehicle as Gerry got in the passenger's cabin. The two of them, along with Jeff, headed for a nearby hummer while Jake got into the jeep with Stracken and Rebecca.

"Kind of hard to put working with dinosaurs on your resume," said Karrie as Sam started up the jeep.

"How do you think I feel?" asked Jeff with a quick laugh. "It's going to be difficult explaining what I did for Ingen."

"I'm sure you'll come up with something," said Sam as he gunned the engine and the vehicle roared off in the small convoy.

Jeep: "So what else has gone wrong since I've been gone?" Jake asked still reading through the recall list.

"The geothermal power system is starting to go again," said Stracken. "It's not like it's going to stop working, it just can't provide enough power for the entire island."

"So it's either cut power to certain areas or risk having the system fail altogether?" said Jake. "I thought we had this problem fixed last month."

"Yeah, but thanks to the recalls, we're having to rely more and more on automation to account for the continued loss of personnel," said Stracken as he turned a corner and the vehicle rolled past a pair of fences on both sides of the road.

"Like what?" asked Rebecca.

"We have an automated assembly line that gives hay and other food to the pens at regular intervals, sprinkler systems that periodically water the grounds to prevent them from drying out, and other things just like that. It's all costing power," said Stracken.

"That and like Indigo this island was never meant to contain dinosaurs for a prolonged period of time. What was supposed to happen was that we'd keep the dinosaurs in their pens for a few months then ship them to Nublar care of Indigo. During the downtime we would relax any systems that had been taxed during the maturity period. Unfortunately that's no longer an option and as a result our systems are being worn out and we can't fix them," said Jake reading the final tally on the board. "And it looks like we're done to less than eighty people on the entire island!"

"I'm as shocked as you are," said Stracken. "That means we've finally fallen below the minimum amount of personnel on the island for smooth operations."

"Yikes," said Rebecca. "So what're you going to do?"

"First of all," said Jake. "You're getting the hell off of this island. If we fall below minimum safety standards, all civilians are to be evacuated immediately and that means you."

"Aw c'mon!" Rebecca protested. "I need the job experience of working under adverse conditions!"

"I don't even think your parents are aware of what's happening on this island and I don't think Pete knows you're here either, so you're gone," said Jake. "Believe me, what you've seen happen so far is well beyond anything you'll encounter in the professional market. Afterwards I'm calling a meeting of the entire island and we are going to decide what to do about it."

"I look forward to that meeting," said Stracken shaking his head. Jake shrugged.

"Oh yeah," he said. "What happened to the trike?"

"Well despite the fact that it got some lysine into its system, the thing went into anaphylactic shock. We've got it restrained in one of the warehouses but it ain't coming out of that coma. Actually come to think of it it's probably dead by now," Stracken mused. "Why?"

"I need a look at its genetic structure," said Jake simply. "I'm worried about dangerous genetic mutations occurring as a result of too much cloning on so few samples."

Stracken's eyes narrowed. "I thought we worked past that?"

"It's probably nothing," Jake said. "But I need to know for sure just for some peace of mind."

"Okay," said Stracken. "I'll tell whoever's left to prep for dissection."

"No that's okay," said Jake trying not to sound too abrupt. "I could use the diversion and if need be, Sam can help me."

"Then you have must have a lot of time on yours hands if you could dissect a full grown trike on your own," said Stracken with a grin.

"Just drive," said Jake. Stracken laughed and pressed the accelerator and the car pressed forward.

One week later, three and a half months post-Nublar: The helicopters departed into the distance as Jake headed for the meeting with the remaining 75 unlucky individuals still left on the island. As Jake approached the podium, he noticed that all the members were there, taking up only three fourth of the seats in the room. It was an incredible contrast to right after Nublar had fallen and the room had been full to standing capacity and even then that was less than a fourth of the total personnel on the island at the time. Jake sighed and took the podium.

"Hey guys," he said. The others looked around and noticed the complete lack of personnel.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" someone asked.

"There are no others," said Jake simply. "We are all that remains of Ingen's presence on this island."

A brief moment of silence descended on the auditorium before it turned into an angry uproar.

"We can't run this island with 75 people!" shouted someone. "We could barely run it with 150!"

"Well that's how it's going to be from now on," Jake snorted. "So sayeth our Lord Peter Ludlow!"

"Fuck Ludlow!" shouted Dillon, one of the more radical members of the island. "I've had enough of this bullshit, it's time we stood up to Ingen because I refuse to spend another minute on this damn island!"

"And how do you propose to do any of that?" Gerry shouted over the ruckus that emanated after that statement. "We're on an island that's on the verge of falling apart at the seams in the South Pacific and they're in their cozy offices in Southern California. Believe me when I say in all honesty that they really don't care what happens here."

"Then I quit," said Dillon.

"Unfortunately you can't," said Jake. "When you signed your contract you voided that possibility unless you were either fired or dead."

"Fire me then," said Dillon.

"Can't, that's corporate decision not mine," said Jake. "You want to have a go at the radio knock yourself out. Somehow I don't think they'll refuse someone _wanting_ to leave."

"If we seize control of this island, then they'll be down here in a hurry," said Dillon with a grin.

"I don't think you get it," said Jake. "We barely have anybody left on this island and if you start a scene ultimately those dinosaurs are going to get loose and then things really will go south for the winter. Right now we need to use the supplies we got from Indigo to fix the fences and then decide how best to conserve power to survive this ordeal."

"Why prolong the inevitable? Doing all of this isn't going to change the fact that the dinosaurs are ultimately going to escape and that we'll be stuck here with them. I don't want to see my life slowly crumble before my eyes, I've worked too long and too hard to see that happen," said Dillon leaving the room. Jake watched him go before looking at Gerry who just shrugged helplessly. Jake sighed and shook his head before returning his attention to the group.

"Anyway I feel that by quickly repairing the damaged fences and fixing any other damage to them, with that and power conservation we should be able to hold out until Ingen comes up with a plan to get us out of Chapter 11," said Jake.

"Oh what's the point," someone said defeatedly. "Nothing we do here is going to matter in the future, let's just enjoy this tropical paradise while we can. C'mon let's get outta here."

The others nodded with defeated looks on their eyes and all got up to leave.

"Yeah I hear ya," Jake admitted to them sadly. "It does look hopeless, but we'll pull through…somehow."

"Thanks Jake," said one of them honestly. "But optimism isn't going to make this situation any better, it just can't."

The rest filed out leaving Sam, Gerry, Jake, and two three others scattered about the room.

"Thanks," said Jake to all that remained.

"Damn my work ethic!" Mandy teased. Jake shook his head lightly before collapsing onto the chair behind the podium.

"Yeah damn us all to hell," said Jake groaning as he held his head in his hands. He then leaned back in his chair and stretched out his legs as put on his sunglasses.

"So what're we going to do?" asked Billy.

"Well we're not going to shoot eggs alright?" said Jake with a grin.

"Yeah I don't what we were thinking at the time," said Mandy.

"It's this island," said the final member Timothy, one of the last few remaining computer programmers left on the island. "It somehow makes you do strange and bizarre things, like a virus that you're just simply not aware of it until it's too late and your CPU and hard drive."

"Nice analogy Tim," laughed Sam. Tim shrugged.

"Do what you know I say," he responded.

"Be honest," said Billy. "Do you think Dillon's going to pull something?"

"I don't know," said Jake truthfully. "He never struck me as the take action type, but if his…CPU has been affected with a virus, who knows?"

Tim groaned as the others thought about it concerned.

"So what're we going to do about it?" asked Billy.

"Nothing at the moment," said Jake. "Enjoy the rest of the day and get some sleep, it's going to be busy tomorrow when we try and repair the damaged fences."

The others nodded and prepared to leave.

"Tim, Gerry, can I see you two for a moment," said Jake. The two stopped and advanced towards the podium while Sam looked at him confused.

"Keep dissecting the trike," Jake said. Sam nodded in confirmation and gave him a thumb's up before putting on his Ingen hat and left as Tim and Gerry approached the podium.

"Actually Tim, can you go to the Control Room, I'll meet up with you there," said Jake. Tim nodded and left as Jake sat down on the stage.

"You do think he's going to pull something don't you?" Gerry accused. Jake took off his sunglasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I don't know," he said in desperation. "But either way I need you to do me a favor."

Fifteen minutes later: Jake and Gerry emerged from the building and went their separate ways with Gerry headed for the docks and Jake to the Control Room. As he walked over to the Operations Building, it was only then that he noticed just how few people were on the island. There was nobody in sight, there were no cars moving about, no unearthly sounds, nothing. For the first time since the recalls had started, the island truly felt like it had truly been deserted. Jake shook his head sadly and pushed into the building. Inside it was just as desolate with the exception of one of the scientists sleeping on a couch in the genetics lab. As Jake walked down the deserted hallways he couldn't help but recall when the place had been bustling and it had been hard to get anywhere. Back then Jake had wished things were less busy, now he wasn't so sure. Yes he did have a grudge against the dinosaurs, but after seeing how badly things had turned out with them gone, he had to begrudgingly admit that things were better with them around. Sighing, he put aside those thoughts for later as he entered into the Control Room.

"So the key is to know your directories," said Tim as he entered into the room. "Then any glitch that comes along will be easy to locate and fix."

Jake looked around the empty computer room confused before he rounded a corner and saw Tim talking to Steviesaurus who was standing on the computer bench next to him and was watching the screen intently.

"Training a new protégé?" Jake asked. Tim looked up at him with some mild embarrassment.

"She seemed willing to learn and at least looked like she understood what I said," he said simply. Jake picked up the dino and set it on his lap as he sat down.

"I'll bet she did," he said distantly as he scratched her head.

"So…what do you need me for?" asked Tim.

"This is going to sound like an odd request and I'll understand if you can't pull it off," said Jake. "But I need you to create a very complex computer program for me."

"I graduated from MIT," said Tim laughing. "I think I can handle it. So what is it?"

"I've always wanted to know what would happen if the dinosaurs could breed," said Jake. "I'd like you to construct a program for me that would indicate, with the current stock that we have now, if some of the dinosaurs could…I don't know, change sex and breed, down the road, how many dinosaurs would be left that would be ours and how many would be the new breed."

"You're right it does sound odd," admitted Tim. "But no real different than SETI's proposed program to use computers around the world to constantly calculate their data to determine if there are any extraterrestrial signals coming in from above. I could do the same thing here using our computers. It'd take a few weeks I won't lie to you on that end, but it can be done."

"Good," said Jake nodding. "But don't tell anyone about this, they'll think I'm nuts. Hell I think I'm nuts, but I'd rather not let anyone else in on that fact."

Tim laughed as he twirled his pen in his hand as he began typing on the computer.

"What if I'm recalled or if Dillon does try something?" he asked as Jake turned to leave with Steviesaurus.

"Then make every moment count," he said simply. "But I need that program done as soon as possible."

With that he left, leaving Tim to his own thoughts in the empty room filled with nothing but silent computers slowly processing away.

Darkened Room, John Hammond Research Facility: Dillon stood there in the dark with five other individuals in the embryo storage room.

"This mockery has gone on long enough," said Dillon. "I don't know how Jake can continue to tolerate Ingen's slow destruction of this island. Those dinosaurs are going to get loose and kill all of us and I wouldn't be surprised if Ingen wants that to happen. All of us have rubbed someone higher up in Ingen the wrong way and that is why they are isolating us and rubbing us out one by one. Well no more, I'm not just going to stand idly by as death closes in around me, we're taking over this island, and we're going to force Ingen to deal with us."

The others nodded and murmured their assent.

"Let's go," said Dillon as they filed out of the building and towards the vehicles outside as they headed straight for The Workers Village.


	10. Mutiny

Anguirus111 Note: The storm in this chapter is not the same as Clarissa, that hurricane will appear at the end of the story.

Morning: A faint layer of fog hung over the interior of the island as Jake sat alone in his office going over some paperwork at the Operations Building as Steviesaurus lay asleep on his desk. As he was filing a couple things away he heard the distant rumble of engines and stopped what he was doing as he stared out his window towards the fog covered village beyond. Three vehicles slowly rumbled into the village through the main entrance and came to a halt as armed personnel left the vehicles and marched across the moat and towards the Operations Building. Jake sighed and nudged Steviesaurus who rumbled discontentment at being woken up.

"Sorry girl, but we're going to have to move soon anyway and I can't afford to have you being fussy when that happens," said Jake. He continued to look over power consumption charts and made tallies on another sheet as there was a knock on his door.

"Come in," said Jake as he began straightening the papers on his desk and throwing some of them into the inbox and some to the out box. He then leaned back in his chair as Dillon entered into the room with some of his vigilantes, all of whom were heavily armed with the standard issue rifles on the island.

"Hello Dillon, folks," said Jake acknowledging their presence as he drilled a staple through a stack of papers. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm sorry Jake," said Dillon apologetically. "But I refuse to stand idly by any longer. I'm seizing control of this island."

"You know, there's not too much of an island left," Jake admitted. Dillon nodded.

"You're right, but I'm doing it anyway," he said. Jake clasped his hands behind his head and propped his feet up on the desk.

"Well, knock yourself out," he said. "Let me know how things turn out."

"I don't think you understand," said Dillon aiming his rifle at him. "I need hostages and I can't afford to have you stop me from taking over this island. Now c'mon, let's go."

Jake looked up at him annoyed. "You're right about one thing, I will stop you. Violence always begets violence, do not forget that."

"Sorry Jake, you're bravado isn't going to work this time," said Dillon. "It's time to go."

"It's not bravado it's the truth," said Jake getting up and picking up Steviesaurus.

"Uh-uh," said Dillon shaking his head. "She stays."

"SHE COMES WITH ME!" Jake shouted angrily. Dillon was slightly taken aback at Jake's ferocity regarding the small dinosaur.

"No, she stays," said Dillon slightly shaken.

"I made a promise to someone that I would keep this dinosaur safe at all costs. If you want me to leave it here then you shoot me otherwise she's coming with us," said Jake emotionless. Dillon quickly weighed his options before deciding on what to do.

"Fine she can come," he said. "Now let's go."

Jake nodded and was escorted out under armed guard with Steviesaurus under his right arm.

"So what's your next move?" Jake asked. "How do you plan to start on digging ourselves deeper into hell?"

"Cute," said Dillon. "But it'll end where it all began."

Auditorium: "Attention everyone," said Dillon over the island wide PA system. "Turn to Channel 4, there's going to be an important announcement in three minutes concerning all of us and our future on this island."

"Oh this oughta be good," Jake laughed even though he was bound to a chair next to the podium with Steviesaurus tied to his lap.

"It will be," Dillon assured him. "It will be."

"Yeah right," said Jake shaking his head.

"What?" demanded Dillon.

"Forget it, you wouldn't understand," said Jake. "Simply put, you can't run this island, it's impossible."

"I don't intend to run this island, I intend to get off of it," said Dillon. Jake rolled his eyes.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" he asked with a snort.

"Convince Ingen that the problems here are greater than they realize and that unless they intervene, this island will no longer be theirs to command with as they please," said Dillon.

"Ingen doesn't negotiate with terrorists," said Jake simply.

"We are not terrorists," said Dillon simply.

"Doesn't matter," said Jake shaking his head. "Ingen can classify you however the hell they want, but rest assured that whatever happens on this island will not leave this island. God, it's like Las Vegas here, shit!"

"We're live," said one of the members of the posse before Dillon could respond to Jake's comment. Dillon just shook his head before addressing the camera.

San Diego: Ludlow and the rest of the board, sans John Hammond, watched the television that was displaying the remote feed from Sorna. The camera focused on Dillon fuzzily before focusing correctly.

"What's going on?" asked Samantha confused. "Why is Jake tied to a chair?"

"We're about to find out," said Lucious Fox calmly as Peter Ludlow sat in silence.

"Hello everyone, hello Pete, I know you're watching this, so listen up," said Dillon leaning forward on the podium. "Effective immediately I have seized control of Isla Sorna."

Half of the board members' jaws dropped while Peter continued to watch emotionless.

"Before you ignored us, but now you have no choice but to deal with our demands," said Dillon. "But before we announce them, let's let our former leader have a few words."

Dillon placed the microphone stand on top of Steviesaurus as Jake looked at the camera.

"I told you this would happen Pete," said Jake. "But you didn't believe me and now I have to deal with your shit. But don't worry, I'll fix it. I always do."

Pete briefly tilted his head towards the screen as he continued watching in silence.

"But know this, whoever's left on this island, if you think Dillon can get us out of this mess, he can't. This island is already gone, nothing can save it now. Ingen or no Ingen, nothing will be able to stop the inevitable at this point, the transfer of power between man and beast on this island is going to happen. In two and a half weeks, we are going to run out of lysine and every dinosaur on the island will go into a hyperactive state. In three weeks, we're going to finally run out of energy reserves and every fence on this island is going to fail. Within a month, the dinosaurs are going to escape their pens thanks to lysine madness and we are going to be running for our lives. Within two and a half months no one is going to be left alive on this island and everything that happened here is going to be a memory. It cannot be stopped, but I can at least do my best to try and ensure that we survive the coming war," said Jake simply. "But if you let Dillon take over, we are all going to be dead within the week and no I'm not joking."

"Don't lie," said Dillon taking the microphone from him. "I do admit things are bleak, but not quite that bleak. Anyway…"

"Get the number crunchers on that right away," said Ludlow finally speaking. Someone nodded and ran off as Dillon rattled off his list of demands. But just as he finished, the whole building began shaking and loud claps of the thunder were heard as the board watched the image dissolve into static.

"What's going on?" asked Lucious. A technician ran in with a weather map.

"There's a tropical storm in the South Pacific," he said laying down the map. "And it looks like it just hit Sorna."

"What do we do?" asked Samantha. "We can't leave them to die!"

"We can do nothing," said Ludlow. "We do not negotiate with terrorists under and circumstances.

"But-"

"If or when Jake reacquires control of the island, then we will decide what to do," said Ludlow.

"We can't sit still and do nothing!" shouted Samantha.

"On the contrary," said Ludlow. "That is exactly what we are going to do. In order to help them would be to strain our resources too far and we have more important matters at hand."

Ludlow turned around in his chair and opened a dossier revealing photos of Ian Malcolm as well as several pieces of paper dictating his actions to reveal the truth of what happened on Isla Nublar.

"Mr. Malcolm is about to meet with a tragic end," he said simply.

Sorna: The whole building shook as severe gusts of wind hammered the outside of the building as the skies turned fiercely gray.

"The hell is going on?" demanded Dillon.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jake asked still tied to the chair. "It's a tropical storm."

"What?" shouted someone. "Why didn't you say anything sooner? We have a warning system set up for this sort of thing!"

"You're right we do," said Jake nodding. "Unfortunately, I had to cut power to the island's atmospheric sensors in order to compensate for the power drain from increased use of the computers and televisions to alleviate the scientists' boredom due to the cancellation of The Dinosaur Revivification Program. So we have been without atmospheric sensors for two months and believe me when I say I think it's a miracle that we haven't been hit with anything worse than a mild rainstorm considering our geographic location."

"But you knew it was coming!" protested someone else.

"Yeah, but not before this morning, I got a fax from an old acquaintance, John Brown, who promised me that should anything bad happen, he'd let me know. Apparently this was one of those instances thank God," said Jake as rain began smashing hard against the windows outside. "Guess your plans for supremacy have to be put on hold for a little bit."

"What do we do?" someone asked helplessly.

"If we can't have this island, we're leaving it!" said Dillon angrily. "Let's go."

"What about me?" Jake protested.

"Someone should come here soon enough to untie you. Until then, it's been fun Jake," said Dillon leaving with the rest. Jake watched them go silently before turning to Steviesaurus still tied to his lap.

"Quit being lazy and cut me loose," he said.

"No," said Steviesaurus.

"Not again!" Jake shouted. Suddenly Gerry appeared laughing behind the curtain on the stage.

"Yes again," he said beginning to untie him.

"I'm gonna get you for this. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and you're gonna burn in hell," said Jake as Gerry finished cutting him loose.

"Let's just get out of here before they decide to come back for you," said Gerry.

"Did you do everything I asked?" Jake asked.

"Done and done, we just need to get to the dock before they do," said Gerry as they headed towards the main doors as water began pouring in from outside through the open door where a couple parkas were waiting for them. They quickly threw them on and ran out into the rain and were immediately pelted as extreme gusts of wind blew through the compound blowing smaller trees and shrubs everywhere. In the distance they could just make out the last vehicle in Dillon's convoy vanish around the corner from the compound. Jake growled before both continued towards the car garage. Both entered into it and advanced towards Jake's V-8 Interceptor. They both got in as Jake produced the key and twisted the ignition as the car roared to life.

"It's times like these I'm glad I decided to make this car 'Road Warrior' configuration," said Jake as he secured Steviesaurus in the back. "The lack of the bottom shell will make driving around in this weather that much easier."

"Quit the commentary," said Gerry. "Let's go!"

Jake nodded and slammed his foot down on the accelerator as the car surged forward into the weather torn scene. The car smashed through the front gates before Jake turned on the lights and the car moved down the road.

"You think this car can take the long way and still get there faster?" asked Gerry looking out at the trees being whipped back and forth out the window as the car nearly spun out before Jake gained control.

"Just keep your eyes on the fences, the instant those lights die, we're finding a bunker and staying there," said Jake as he pulled the button located on the shifter and the car accelerated even faster as the supercharger kicked in.

"You think the fences are going to fail," Gerry stated.

"I know they're going to fail," said Jake grimly. "It's just a question of when."

"Shouldn't the lightning rods help out in this situation?" Gerry asked.

"You know those are only a temporary solution," said Jake. "The power is still going to fail, nothing can change that now. Well nothing short of shutting the power off for six months, but it'd still be the same end result, the dinos are loose and we're all dead."

"Not to mention their potentially breeding capabilities," Gerry surmised.

"Things are going to change dearly after this," Jake grumbled as he twisted the wheel and the car zoomed off the road plunged down the side of a hill.

"Well if we somehow survive this I'll see that it does," said Gerry as the car began rattling from the moving over broken terrain before hitting the bottom of the hill and accelerating down a water soaked field.

"We both will," said Jake as the car smashed through a pair of shrubbery at the end of the field and back onto the road.

Docks: The Interceptor roared to a halt and Jake and Gerry got out and fought their way through the blinding rain towards the building beyond.

"Is everything set up?" asked Jake as they finally managed to get out of the rain and take off their parkas. They both advanced into the warehouse filled with dozens of crates and boat parts.

"Yes," Gerry confirmed. "But are you sure this is a good idea?"

"No," said Jake. "But this will at least force us to confront our problems. And if worse comes to worse there's always other ways to get off this island."

"Yeah," laughed Gerry. "Swim."

Jake said nothing but just walked up the steps to the control booth beyond.

Outside: The convoy rumbled to a halt amidst the rain as lightning bolts flashed by angrily overhead. The team got out amidst the rainstorm before they noticed the Interceptor parked outside.

"That Jake," said Dillon. "He's always leaving his toys lying around."

"How do we know he didn't escape and get here first?" someone asked as they tried to withstand the heavy wind and rain as Dillon opened the door and began rummaging through the car.

"He did," said Dillon hauling out Steviesaurus. "C'mon let's go find him."

The group cocked their weapons and proceeded into the nearest warehouse as more lightning bolts continued flying by directly overhead until one smashed into a tree and flames leapt up and began to chew up the nearby forest. The team entered into the warehouse and instantly fanned out amidst the crates.

"Jake I know you're here," shouted Dillon as he held Steviesaurus by her bony frill as she began bleating at him. "I've got your dinosaur."

Jake and Gerry were up in the control booth and watched the group below.

"Damn," Jake seethed. "I didn't bring her in because I figured she'd just get in our way. Now she isn't and yet she is."

"Put your feelings aside, we can't let them leave this island," said Gerry snapping up his assault rifle he had taken from the crate back on Sorna.

"Yeah, if one thinks they can break the rules they'll all think they can break the rules," Jake agreed. "Then we'll never get anything done around here, we have to know if those dinos can breed or not."

"So what do we do about them?" asked Gerry.

"Divide and conquer," said Jake pulling out his tranq gun and a headset keyed into the warehouse's speakers.

"Right," said Gerry nodding. They both went their separate ways.

Down below the group were fanning out amidst the crates.

"Jake, quit playing the silent game and come on out," said Dillon.

"Why?" asked Jake over the speakers. Dillon jumped but quickly calmed down.

"We just want to talk," said Dillon. "You know if you're pissed about the whole tying up thing I'm sorry."

"Let the dinosaur go and then we'll talk," said Jake. A dart flew out and smacked a worker in the neck and he dropped like a rock.

"No I think she'll stay with me," said Dillon continuing to walk through the crates. Another dart flew out and dropped another worker.

"Suit yourself," said Jake. "But she can be a hassle."

"I can tell," said Dillon trying to keep the fidgeting dinosaur still. Another soldier dropped this time right in front of Dillon.

"Sorry Jake I had to do this but," began Dillon as he began firing in every direction he could with his rifle. Crates exploded everywhere as Jake and Gerry both hit the ground to avoid the bullets.

"You idiot you're going to kill us all!" shouted Jake.

"I'd rather die than spend another moment on this godforsaken island!" shouted Dillon as he loaded more shells into his rifle. Jake and Gerry had both landed near each other and looked over to see one of the gas tanks leaking gasoline from several bullet holes.

"Oh shit," they both said before they got up and ran in different directions. Dillon fired again and one flew into the gas tanks again and it exploded blasting a large hole in the side of the warehouse and instantly wind and rain began flooding into the building with the fire visible in the background.

"Guys let's move out!" shouted Dillon heading for the still scorching hole. The remaining seven members hurried after him nervously before two of them were picked off by Jake and Gerry. They dropped and the remaining workers fired a few shots back into the building before emerging into the even worse weather and headed for the docks with the three remaining boats.

"We'll take the farthest one," said Dillon. "This weather should cut out soon and then it'll be smooth sailing."

The others nodded nervously while Jake and Gerry emerged from the warehouse guns drawn.

"That's as far as you go Dillon," said Jake as the wind threatened to toss them off of their feet.

"No Jake, I'm leaving and you can't stop me or she gets it," said Dillon pressing the rifle against Steviesaurus' neck.

"And I can't afford to let you leave this island," said Jake. "Gerry."

Gerry nodded and pulled out a small cylindrical rod.

"Last chance, surrender," said Jake as a lightning flashed by overhead.

"No," said Dillon making a move to leave. Gerry pressed a button on the rod and the boats all exploded one after the next down the dock.

"What the hell did you do?" demanded Dillon.

"My job," shouted Jake over the howl of the storm. But at that moment, a lightning bolt snaked its way downward and it hit the ground causing an explosion that knocked everyone off of their feet. The group laid there dazed for a few moments before Dillon stumbled to his feet and limped his way back to his truck. Jake growled and pushed himself off of the ground and stumbled his way after him. Dillon meanwhile had managed to ease his injured body into the truck and set the unconscious Steviesaurus into the passenger's seat as he turned the car on and roared off down the road as Jake headed for his Interceptor.

"What're you doing?" Gerry demanded, getting to his feet.

"Take care of them," said Jake pointing to the unconscious members. "I'll deal with this."

"It's not worth it," said Gerry. "He can't do anything on his own now."

"I don't care about him!" shouted Jake. "Steviesaurus is the only thing keeping me sane on this island and if she's gone then I'll loose it."

With that he shut the door and gunned the engine and the car chewed up mud before it tore off after the escaping truck. Gerry opened his mouth to say something, but shut it and just grumbled and shook his head.

Dirt Road: Fire leapt up on both sides of the road as the forest was burning heavily when the two vehicles tore down the road one after the other.

"You're crazy Jake," Dillon grumbled as he continued pressing the accelerator down further and further as the Interceptor kept dogging on his tail. Dillon groaned and grabbed his rifle and swung it over his shoulder and fired, but the gun clicked empty.

"Damnit," said Dillon as the Interceptor slammed into the back of the truck nearly causing it to spin out.

"Not today Jake, not today," said Dillon as he twisted the wheel and the truck roared over the edge of the hill they were traveling over. The Interceptor followed suit and went airborne before both crashed down onto the ground running parallel to a heavily barred fence. A roar was soon heard over both the roar of the engine and the storm as the massive Spinosaurus appeared and ran parallel to the two vehicles as electricity arced from the fence to hit the thing. Jake shook his head and hit the supercharger pulley, but to his horror, the engine cut out on him and the car rolled to a halt.

"Damnit," said Jake trying to get the engine to turn back over to no avail as the truck stopped nearby and Dillon emerged with Steviesaurus and ran into a nearby building standing on the lip of a massive valley. Jake grabbed his rifle and chased after him as a massive lightning bolt slammed into the spinosaurus causing it to collapse unconscious. Jake promptly ran to the building and emerged inside to hear the clattering of steps down a stairwell in the center of the room. He was about to follow when he realized where he was thanks to the sign on the wall.

"Pteranodon Pit, enter at your own risk," said Jake. "Shit. Now what the hell does he want here?"

Jake ran to the side of the building and looked out through the binocular stand that was there. Craning down he noticed a boat still tethered to the dock outside of the birdcage. Jake groaned and raced down the stairs despite the inherent danger. The Pteranodons would not attack unless they hadn't been recently fed, but unfortunately Jake did not know when that had last been due to the lack of personnel. Down below, Dillon was hurrying as quickly as he could to avoid the pteranodons that frequented the area and hoped he could reach the bottom and level and escape out the door before they caught up with him. In the background he heard silent clattering of feet against metal, but he quickly put it off as Jake in order to avoid panic. Steviesaurus meanwhile had gone completely silent and looked nervous, which didn't help Dillon's confidence at all. As he raced down another catwalk, a large thud was heard and the walkway shook. Dillon looked around nervously and held up Steviesaurus in an attempt at bait. Realizing he couldn't afford to stay still, he tore off another corridor as a dart wizzed by his ear and ricocheted off of a nearby rock. Dillon risked a quick glance behind him to see Jake hobbling after him after having apparently leapt onto the walkway from above. Dillon scowled but continued running as Jake took off after him. They both tore down steps and walkways, each listening intently for the sound of rustling wings through the mist. At this point, Jake was angry that he'd decided to cut power to the fans that left this place moisture free, but if hadn't then some other dinosaur might've escaped their pen and wreaked havoc.

"You can't win," said Dillon back to him.

"If you don't stop, we're both going to loose," said Jake checking his remaining three darts.

"That's fine for me," said Dillon. "You're going to run out of darts eventually and I know you won't use deadly force against me."

"In order to preserve order on this island I will do what's necessary," Jake said back.

"I'll believe it when I see it," said Dillon. Suddenly a massive wake slammed into them knocking them to the deck as a rustling was heard directly over their heads. Jake fired a couple shots from his rifle but nothing came of it.

"You dead?" asked Dillon.

"No," said Jake. "You?"

A clattering of metal was heard and Jake leapt to his feet and chased after him again as more rustling was heard all around them. Both of them continued their speed until both emerged from the mist that permeated the upper levels. As they both ran down a long catwalk, a loud screech was heard and both looked up to see a pair of pteranodons diving straight towards them. Jake opened fire as Dillon ran for it. The bullets slammed into the two pterandons and they dropped to the catwalk dead as more appeared from all around them. Jake continued chasing after Dillon as a pair of the flying dinosaurs landed on the catwalk below them and began slowly walking towards them. Seeing his options, Dillon dropped Steviesaurus onto the walkway and leapt off the catwalk and into the river below. One of the pteranodons took to the sky while the other stalked the small protoceratops who ran away from the dinosaur. Jake continued his pace as the pteranodon began walking faster along the catwalk. He aimed his rifle at the beast and fired, but the chamber came up empty so Jake chucked the rifle at the dinosaur that took it to the head and fell over backwards in a daze. Jake leapt over the railing and slammed down onto the lower catwalk as Steviesaurus bounded into him happily.

"Hey girl, you miss me?" Jake asked the dinosaur. Pulling himself to his feet he looked up to see the top of the birdcage in the distance as well as a pair of pteranodons soaring high overhead before looking down at the river below him.

"I hope you can swim girl," said Jake as he leapt over the side of the rail and splashed into the water below. Jake promptly tore off down the river after Dillon who was having his own issues fighting off the pteranodons who were buzzing him. Jake just shook his head and made his way as best he could to the only exit on the ground level. Jake chased after him as more pteranodons soared by left and right. Jake emptied his dart gun and dropped the gun in the water as he dove to the ground while a couple pteranodons soared by way overhead of him.

"_The Hell?"_ wondered Jake before he realized that he wasn't the target of this attack.

"Dillon drop!" shouted Jake as the two dinosaurs came straight at the ex-scientist.

"Fuck you!" shoutedDillon as he finally reached the exit door. "I'm outta…AAH!"

One of the two pteranodons grabbed him and pulled a quick twist and soared off into the sky narrowly avoiding the fence that wasn't electrified anyway. Jake watched helplessly as he was carried off but knew there wasn't anything that could be done. Jake ran to the exit at breakneck speed as another pteranodon came in for the kill. Jake shoved open the door and leapt through it as the pteranodon slammed into the small passageway and dropped to the ground. Jake kicked the door shut and it locked as he lay there panting on the ground with Steviesaurus cradled under his arms.

"You're not worth it," said Jake to the dino who just licked his face happily. Jake laughed and set his head down on the ground asleep as the storm overhead finally broke and a rainbow appeared over their heads.


	11. Decisions

Sorna, 4 Months Post-Nublar: Jake opened his eyes and groaned as a bright light shown down from above.

"Somebody, turn off that light!" he groaned. To his surprise the light did shut off and Jake bolted upwards before slamming back down onto a hospital gurney.

"Oh good you're awake," said Derek Waters, the last remaining physician on the island. "Guess that means no malpractice suit muwahahahaha!"

"How long was I out?" Jake asked. Stormy shrugged.

"I dunno a day maybe two," he said. "It took us a little bit to find you though."

"Where's my dino?" Jake asked.

"Resting comfortably in her cage in your office," said Derek. "I think it's a miracle you both survived this ordeal with only minor scratches and cuts. Well, no malpractice suit this time."

"I think it's a miracle you're doing your job," said Jake laughing. Derek shrugged and tossed the clipboard with Jake's diagnosis on it onto a nearby counter.

"Let's just say that Dillon's rebellion opened a lot of people's eyes around here. Between him rebelling and you stopping him, the people are afraid that you'll come after them if we don't do our jobs."

"Hooray," said Jake. "Where's Gerry?"

"He said he had to go out to the pteranodon cage, no idea why though," said Derek.

"What do you mean no idea?" Jake asked.

"Dillon blew up all of the boats on the island and left in the only remaining one, which he didn't realize was damaged and drowned," said Derek. "You tried to save him but it was too late and he drowned or at least that's what Gerry said happened."

"Oh yeah," said Jake still a little bit confused. Gerry then appeared and entered in through one of the doors.

"Hey Jake," said Gerry apprehensive.

"Thanks for your help," said Jake. Gerry nodded absently.

"We need to talk," he said. Jake nodded hoping that things would've calmed down but apparently no such luck.

"Let's go to my office," he said. Gerry nodded and the two left leaving Derek bewildered. The two emerged from the hospital/dentist's office/etc. and walked down the main road that was still vacant. After passing through the main entrance and walking through the still empty building, with the exception of a pair of scientists analyzing something on a computer, Jake and Gerry entered Jake's office.

"So what's up?" asked Jake sitting behind his desk. Steviesaurus was indeed still out cold on his desk so Jake picked up the cage and set it down on the floor.

"While you were out, me and a couple of the guys went into the pteranodon cage and recovered the remains of Dillon," said Gerry.

"Yeah, he didn't deserve to go out the way he did, score another one for the dinosaurs. So what's the damage to the island?" asked Jake looking at a piece of paper on his desk.

"Unfortunately that's the least of our problems right now," said Gerry. "We find him inside of a nest."

Jake dropped his papers and they flew everywhere. "A nest?"

"A nest," said Gerry. "And filled with these."

Gerry hauled a large box onto Jake's desk and opened it up to reveal a baby pteranodon.

"Oh my God," said Jake beginning to feel sick. "So they can breed."

"Yes, there were five in the nest along with a parent. We shot them all, but still where's there's one there's sure to be more," said Gerry.

"Damn I was hoping to put this off until later," said Jake holding his head in frustration. "You realize what this means don't you?"

"That the contingency plan must be implemented, island integrity has become compromised because of this," said Gerry. Jake sighed and rolled over to his safe and opened it. Inside were some weapons that he'd taken from the crate on Indigo, the others he'd put in his office back at the Hammond Research Center, and a single dossier. Jake pulled it out and looked at it apprehensively. The document had only three letters on it: E.L.E.

"I never thought we'd ever use this," said Jake. "Even after Jeffrey died I…I don't know."

"You have to open it," Gerry insisted. "This farce has gone on long enough. It's time for us to regain control of this island."

Jake nodded and pulled out a pocket knife and cut open the envelope. Inside was a single red key. Jake looked at it with remorse before getting up and following Gerry. The two left his office and proceeded to a door that was hidden in the side of the wall. On each side of the hidden door were two key slots.

"You know they're going to get warnings about this back in San Diego," said Jake.

"I doubt the equipment used to transmit that signal even works anymore," said Gerry. "And even if it does, we have the legal right to do this."

Jake nodded and inserted his key into the slot.

"Counter clockwise on three," said Jake as Gerry nodded. "One, two."

They both twisted their keys and the door pulled backwards and slid up. Jake and Gerry left their keys in the lock and entered into the sterile room. Jake pulled out a keycard and Gerry pulled out his. They both inserted them into a computer on the far wall and the screen came up: Command Code Authorization.

"Whitacre, Chief Scientist Jake L.," said Jake into a nearby microphone. "Command J-22-37."

"Harding, Veterinarian Gerry," said Gerry. "Command H-99-81."

The screen came up: Access Approved, ELE Execute Y/N?

"This is it, there is no turning back," Jake said.

"You know as well as I do that we have to do this," said Gerry. Jake sighed.

"I know," said Jake. He pressed the N button and the screen read: Access Approved. The screen shut off and a panel above it opened up.

San Diego: Alarms blared all over the Ingen Complex and on every computer a popup came up reading: PROJECT E.L.E. ACTIVATED. Everyone looked at it bewildered including the board in their office.

"What is Project Ellie?" asked Samantha.

"I don't know, but I am sure my esteemed uncle would know," said Ludlow. "Which is why I am going to ask him."

"Don't bother," said Mr. Hammond as he suddenly appeared hobbling in with his amber tipped cane.

"What's going on?" demanded Lucious as Hammond sat down. "What is E.L.E.?"

"Something that Jake Whitacre must be prevented from carrying out," said Hammond solemnly.

Sorna: Jake reached into the open compartment and pulled out a pair of notebooks, one with a red slip cover the other just a normal notebook. Jake handed the regular one to Gerry and took the red one.

"I bet they're shitting a brick right now," said Jake laughing.

"Probably," said Gerry. "But they deserve it for the hell they put us through."

Each notebook read E.L.E. and below it: Extinction Level Event.

San Diego: "E.L.E. is called an Extinction Level Event," said Hammond. "It's the name for any event that could cause the rapid loss of an entire species. One E.L.E. was whatever took out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago."

"And what does this have to do with Sorna?" asked Samantha. Hammond looked at her annoyed.

"It was also the name for the contingency plan designed to rid the islands of dinosaurs should containment be considered in danger," said Hammond. "Jake had it implemented following the incident with A-1."

"What does E.L.E. entail then?" asked Lucious.

"It has step by step instructions created by Robert Muldoon, Gerry Harding, Jake Whitacre, and Henry Wu to eliminate every dinosaur on the island," said Hammond amazed at the council's stupidity. "It lists their strengths, weaknesses, critical points to attack, what they eat, how to effectively poison it, etc. along with a timeline to implement it. We kept it carefully locked away so as not to fall into a rival company's hands where they could easily destroy everything that we'd worked so hard to create. As I said, it was to be implemented in the case that either containment was in danger or if the lysine contingency failed."

"So what changed?" asked Samantha.

"I don't know," Hammond confessed. "But what the hell have you done to my island!"

"Do not blame this on me," said Ludlow. "Your inaction has caused more damage than my actions ever could. I have been doing my best to keep Ingen afloat after your abysmal failure with that park idea."

"The park was not a failure," Hammond fumed. "Nedry betrayed me and then died to escape my vengeance. But there is still a chance the island can be recovered."

"Not with ELE in effect," Ludlow said silently. Hammond jerked his head to stare at him but before he could issue a retort, the fax machine went off printing a report from Isla Sorna.

Sorna: "Let them mull over that for awhile," said Jake as the fax machine was hard at work processing his report. Meanwhile Jake and Gerry were reading over the E.L.E. report.

"God I'd forgotten how comprehensive this thing was," said Jake shaking his head as he rifled through everything.

"It took us nine months of comprehensive research to get this much," said Gerry looking at a massive foldout chart of Sorna with the layout of all dinosaur pens each with a number over it. "So it'd better damn well be comprehensive."

"Touché," said Jake as he looked at a diagram of a velociraptor detailing its reaction time, speed, and areas of weakness.

"Guess we'd better start implementing this before Ingen gets PO'd and pulls the plug," said Gerry.

"They're not going to do anything," said Jake as he slapped the notebook closed. "They're a bureaucracy they won't be coming to a decision anytime soon. Now let's get to work."

San Diego: "How're we supposed to know if they're even going to do anything?" Samantha asked. "Maybe they're just doing it to rattle us."

"You read the report," said Lucious. "The dinosaurs can breed, if anything they're justified in what they're doing. We cannot afford to have assets unaccounted for on any island."

"They are destroying my property!" shouted Hammond. "We must do something!"

"And we will," said Ludlow. "But not in a way to draw attention to ourselves and our problems. We will send an HR representative to that island to assess what is going on. If it is a danger to our assets then we will decide what to do, not before then!"

"Then get that person onto that island fast," said Hammond harshly as he left with his butler.

Sorna: Jake was leafing through the timeline in the notebook when his phone rang. Jake hadn't heard the sound in so long that he dropped his notebook startled.

"I wonder who that could be?" said Gerry. Jake shrugged.

"This ought to be good," said Jake as he picked up the phone.

"Whit," he said.

"Hey Jay Dubya how's it going?" came the always cheerful voice of John Brown. "I see you survived that tropical storm."

Jake groaned. "What do you want?"

"Who is it?" Gerry whispered.

"John Brown," said Jake as he covered up the bottom part of the phone. Gerry started to leave when Jake waved his back down. Gerry shrugged and sat back down.

"Alright I'll cut the crap to keep this short. You told me to tell if you anything bad was happening in the outside world and I'm sticking to that promise," said John. "They buried him Jake."

"Buried who?" asked the scientist, opening Steviesaurus cage and laying the now awake dinosaur on his lap.

"Ian, he talked and Ingen buried him!" said John. Jake dropped the phone and it hit the desk. Gerry looked at him confused before Jake waved him to leave. Gerry nodded understanding and left.

"I-I'm sorry," said Jake.

"Don't worry about it, I'm going to go make arrangements for ELE," said Gerry leaving. Jake nodded and grasped for the phone.

"So what exactly happened?" asked Jake finding his voice.

"My people are still putting together the pieces but from the looks of it, but apparently Mr. Malcolm started using his class to begin discussing and arguing against what Ingen did on Jurassic Park," said John. "Needless to say Ingen wasn't just about sit idly by and let this happen."

"Was Hammond involved?" asked Jake.

"Not as far as we can tell," said John. "It looks like it was all Ludlow's idea. Hammond was still withdrawn from the company at the time."

"As opposed to now?" asked Jake. A soft chuckle was heard from the other end.

"Let's just say Project ELE isn't sitting too well with him," John said finally.

"Why am I not surprised you know about that," said Jake. "Just like you knew my phone number on this island; who're your sources?"

"You know I can't reveal that," John replied.

"I hate you," said Jake.

"I know, but I just thought you should know about Ian. At the moment his tenure is on the verge of being revoked and its possible Ingen may take up legal action," said John.

"I told him to say nothing," Jake said helplessly. "I warned him of the consequences."

"Well you know how Ian is," said John. "Listen I gotta go, but uh, don't do anything rash, you'll only regret it later on. So long Jake."

"Bye Brown," said Jake as he clicked the phone shut leaving Jake alone with his thoughts.

Auditorium: "So we'll start out with the hadrosaurs before moving onto the maiasaurs," said Gerry after outlining his plans.

"Wait," said someone. "First you tell us to stop hunting the dinosaurs and now we're going to be hunting them again, what gives?"

Gerry was hesitant to respond when Jake strode in.

"Containment is now facing imminent failure," he said as he took the podium.

"So we'll fix the fences," someone said.

"That doesn't matter anymore," said Jake. "The Lysine Contingency has failed."

"How?" asked another scientist. Jake held up the dead baby pteranodon.

"The dinosaurs can breed that's why," he said. Immediately uproar erupted from the crowd before Jake pulled out a gun and fired it at the ceiling.

"Calm down!" he shouted. Silence and fear immediately descended on the group.

"Now as you all well know we have a contingency plan for this sort of situation and if we follow it we'll all survive this ordeal," said Jake. "But if we don't we are royally screwed."

"So what do we do?" asked someone.

"We follow ELE to the letter and we eliminate every dinosaur on this island," said Jake bitterly. "And then we restart the project."

"That's a lot of work," said someone.

"Yes," Jake agreed. "But we don't have a choice anymore. If you people had listened to me at the start, we wouldn't be in this situation, but you didn't and now we are."

"So what's going to happen?" asked a scientist.

"This record is not complete," said Jake waving the file. "I need a complete biological and photo record of these dinosaurs' strengths and weaknesses. In order to do that we need specimens, both alive and dead, in order to complete it. Not only that, but we need to control their numbers so we'll split up, half of us will go get them and half of us will tear them apart. That way, when those fences finally fail, we will have the advantage, not them. But we have to do this because if we don't…"

"Yeah," said Gerry sadly. "Then dinosaurs will once again rule the Earth. So let's go, we have a job to do."

The others nodded fearfully and left with their assigned ELE packets. Gerry was about to leave when he noticed Jake still standing there in silence behind the podium.

"What're you thinking?" Gerry asked. Jake just shook his head as he hopped off of the stage.

"Beware the beast man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him, for he is the harbinger of death," said Jake disgusted.

"Meaning?" asked Gerry.

"Oh just something I've come to realize by spending too much time on this island," said Jake as he left the room with Gerry following him.

"So we're doomed is that it?" asked Gerry shaking his head as they emerged into the sunlight and the weather torn Workers Village.

"No," said Jake grabbing a rifle and hopping into the bed of one of the trucks as Gerry stayed behind on the ground. "Just that what happens in the next few months is going to have lasting repercussions for the rest of our lives."

Jake hit the side of the bed and the trucks roared off down the road.


	12. Action

Anguirus111 Note: Jake's revolver is identical to Vash's from Trigun. I just think it looks cool. This is a short chapter, because this is the beginning of the end for Isla Sorna.

Maisasaur Pit: The dinosaurs were peacefully grazing when suddenly mechanical beasts came from out of nowhere and surrounded them, severally frightening the beasts as the clustered together in a group unsure about this new threat. Smaller beasts advanced out of the larger beasts and approached the group. The maiasaurs had had some interaction with these creatures before and advanced towards them cautiously. Suddenly all of the creatures pulled out small rods and little pieces of metal flew from them. Instantly, the dinosaurs all fell one by one, each mowed down by the flying metal. All save one, felled by a dart.

"Alright load it up!" shouted Jake.

A large semi-tractor trailer appeared and the workers immediately lifted the drugged creature into the back as other maiasaurs appeared. Jake looked at them and wondered if they felt the same way he had looked at that raptor when Jeffrey had died.

"Let's go," said Jake advancing towards them with his rifle and modified revolver in his hands. The others nodded and followed suit as each of them opened fire while the maiausaurs fled.

"_May God turn a blind eye to what we do today_," thought Jake solemnly as more and more dinosaurs fell by their feet. When it was all over, the meadow ran red with blood and spent shells as fifteen massive dinosaurs laid dead at their feet. Jake looked around at all of the destruction before looking at his revolver. Inside was a single shell remaining. Jake spun the barrel before snapping the gun closed and holding it to his head, but as much as he wanted to pull the trigger, he couldn't. He just stood there in silence before groaning. He lowered the gun and pulled on the trigger, the gun clicked empty. Jake just shook his head and headed back to the vehicles as nearby a couple members were dousing the dead corpses with gasoline. One of them threw a match and the whole lot went up in flames. A couple moments later the vehicles exited the fence. The others sat in the trucks unsure of what they had done, but truly believed that what they were doing was correct. Jake meanwhile took out a radio.

"Cut all power to the maiasaur fences and redirect it to the tyrannosaur paddock," he said into it.

"Check, got it," said Sam on the other end. Jake shut off the radio and opened up his ELE packet. At that exact moment 5 teams of ten members each were fanned out across the island each taking on a different species of dinosaur as the power to those fences was diverted elsewhere. As that was happening, each was gathering a single specimen for testing, which was why the semi-truck ahead of them was joined by four others before each split up, with those with larger animals headed for Embryonic Administration and the smaller ones towards the Operations Building.

"Hey Jake," said Sam again over the radio.

"Yeah?" asked Jake as the truck made rounded a turn and moved alongside a fence beyond which brachiosaurs were drinking some water.

"You've got an incoming fax," said Sam. Jake narrowed his eyes confused before shrugging.

"Alright I'm coming in," he said finally. He hit the side of the truck and it rumbled to a halt as Jake hopped out.

"Continue with the mission, I'm going to hoof it back to base," he said to the driver who nodded. An instant later the truck headed off leaving Jake alone. As he advanced down the road he distantly heard gunshots in the distance and an occasional dinosaur roar. As he did, he couldn't help but notice the heatwave that had descended on the island for the past day and a half, ever since they had made their decision to execute E.L.E.

"_Almost like descending into Hell_," thought Jake with a smirk as he wiped his forehead. As he continued down the road, his vision suddenly became very blurry thanks to the heat as in the distance a small figure appeared coming towards him. As the blurry figure began to take shape, it took the form of a velociraptor. Jake looked at it wide-eyed before he swung up his rifle and fired. But to his dismay the creature kept coming on a slow but steady path before him. Jake fired again but again to no avail as the dinosaur showed both no sign of slowing down nor made any attempt to evade his attacks. Jake pulled the trigger again but this time the barrel clicked empty.

"Shit," said Jake looking at the thing before discarding the weapon. He then pulled out his handgun and aimed it at the creature.

"That won't solve anything," said the creature. Jake sighed and shook his head.

"Why must I always hallucinate during trying times?" Jake shouted at the heavens. He sighed and started walking towards and past the beast. But as they were side by side, the beast reared back its hand and slapped him.

"The hell was that for?" Jake demanded of his hallucination.

"I told you not to do this but you went ahead and did it anyway, you bastard," said the raptor.

"You have no right to judge me," said Jake. "I'm the one being forced to make the decisions around here, not you. You can hate me sure but you have no right to judge me."

"But at what cost?" asked the raptor morphing into Jeffrey. "At what cost?"

"I don't speak to abominations," said Jake coldly. "My friend would never be criticizing my decisions he would respect that I am doing the best job I possibly can."

"Jake," said Jeffrey. "I know I can't stop you, but there's one thing you should know."

"What?" Jake demanded. "And then please leave me alone I don't have time for this, not anymore. So go ahead, say what you're going to say and then leave me alone."

Jeffrey sighed. "You're right about one thing what happens here on this island right now is going to have lasting repercussions, repercussions that are going to last your entire life. Can you handle that?"

"Hindsight is 20/20," Jake responded despite himself. "I will never know the consequences of my decision until I make it and not even you can know what my future holds."

"Oh I know," said Jeffrey morphing back into the raptor. "I've known ever since I saw your face that day, that day that I died."

"Are you a hallucination or my conscience?" asked Jake confused.

"I'm you; you that's being repressed," said the raptor. "I am both your inner peace and your utter anger and if you don't start listening to me we're all going to die."

With that it dissipated leaving Jake alone. He narrowed his eyes in thought as a vehicle pulled up besides him. Steve exited and walked towards him drinking some water.

"You okay?" he asked out of breath from the heat. Jake shrugged.

"Just seeing things," he said simply. "So what's up, I was still on my way."

"This was kind of urgent," said Steve handing him a fax.

"Are sending an HR representative to your island to assess morale issues-Ingen," said Jake reading it. "So?"

"So?" Steve exclaimed. "We could be in deep shit for this!"

"Unlikely," said Jake heading for the vehicle. "They're just trying to find out what's going on here."

"Do you think they'll stop us?" Steve asked as Jake got into the truck and started it up.

"I doubt it," said Jake as Steve got in on the other side. "If they were really worried about what we're doing here then they'd have swarmed the island en masse and fired all of us. But their hands are tied in so many ways that they could never untie themselves from this one."

"How so?" asked Steve as the truck rumbled down the dirt road.

"A: Ingen is covering up the DRP project, meaning that if we were doing inhumane things to the dinosaurs to reveal that would reveal the project and Ingen isn't willing to do that. B: We made, patented, and own these dinosaurs so they're ours to do with as we please. C: I hope they do try something because I don't want to be here when the fences finally fail," said Jake flipping down the forward visor.

"Speaking of which," said Steve reluctantly.

"Yeah?" asked Jake as he turned around a bend in the road and emerged into a convoy of other semis who honked at him. Steve produced a manilla folder full of papers and calculations.

"I have worked this out every possible way, used every possible variation of ELE and calculated all possible ways to divert and conserve power and I have come to the conclusion that given the manpower we have available to us there is no possible way that we are going to successfully maintain power until the completion of ELE. In fact we aren't even going to be close," said Steve. Jake sighed and closed his eyes briefly as he collected his thoughts.

"How long?" he finally asked.

"A month maybe less," said Steve.

"And if we strain our resources to the max?" asked Jake as his jaw tightened.

"If we divert power to just the carnivore fences, the last one will fail in a month a half," said Steve. Jake's eyes narrowed.

"And you're sure about this?" he asked. Steve nodded solemnly.

"Gerry showed me a computer program Ray created in the event ELE had to modified somehow and it's results are pretty much 100 accurate," said Steve. "Like you said over the broadcast back to San Diego, we're all going to be dead within two and a half months," said Steve. Jake pulled into the base as the semis that came with them stopped outside the main gates and began offloading their cargo into special cages that were then wheeled into the main bases towards the Operations Building. Jake stopped the truck in front of the building and he and Steve got out and advanced towards it.

"Are you going to tell anybody?" asked Steve.

"I don't know," Jake responded as they pushed into the building which was bustling with activity for the first time in a long while. "I'm just making this up as I go along."

A cart was wheeled into a room behind a gigantic metal door and animal roars were heard emerging from it. Jake leaned into the room where Gerry he saw hard at work dissecting one of the animals.

"Hey, Gerry!" Jake shouted over the various drills and machinery in the room. Gerry looked up at him through blood stained goggles and a blood soaked labcoat.

"Yeah?" he asked. Jake jerked his head towards the exit.

"We need to talk," he said before ducking out. Gerry nodded and followed suit. He left the room and walked down the hallway with Jake and Steve as they entered into Jake's office.

"Don't spill blood anywhere I just had the place steam cleaned," said Jake looking at Gerry's red aura.

"I've heard that one before," said Gerry sitting down on the couch on the other end.

"As have I," said Steve sitting down in a chair in front of Jake's desk. "Back when we first started information gathering on ELE."

"How things have changed," said Jake.

"So what do you want?" asked Gerry taking off his goggles. Jake propped his feet up on his desk and leaned back in his chair.

"Has Steve apprised you of our power forecast?" Jake asked as he waved his hand trying to cool himself off before punching the air conditioning unit that worked for a few moments and then died.

"If you mean the fact that we're too late in implementing ELE then yes," said Gerry. "So what do you plan on doing about it? Clearly we have a few options, all of them bad."

"Obviously," said Jake nodding. "But I do have a few ideas. Before Nublar crashed, I sort of developed a backup to the ELE plan."

"What sort of backup?" asked Gerry interested.

"Well it's not so much of a backup plan as it is a plan of defense," said Jake opening up his safe. "I called it Project HSWS."

"HSWS?" asked Steve. "What does that stand for?"

"Project Holy Shit We're Screwed," said Jake producing a floppy disk. "It's a defense plan against the dinosaurs where essentially we chop the island into segments and a fallback plan with various positions. With a little luck we should be able to survive long enough for Ingen to get off its ass and come and rescue us."

"And how does this plan end?" asked Gerry.

"We're all crowded into the Workers Village with all power devoted to the perimeter fence and we're all equipped with every weapon we can get our hands on," said Jake. "Every building will have multiple escape points and if worse comes to worse we flee like hell out of the Workers Village which will be primed with dynamite, plastique explosives, seismic survey charges, whatever we've got all set to explode once we get as many dinosaurs herded into the Village as possible. We blow it, hopefully most of the carnivores die, and then we survive for as long as we can on our own until we evacuate," said Jake booting up the disk. "That being said I kind of wish we hadn't blown up every boat save one."

"Worse comes to worse I think I can get John Brown to bail us out," said Jake. "There's a Pacific Pharmaceuticals branch in San Jose and they have helicopters for field work. I just hope he's up high enough in the corporate ladder that he'll have that kind of pull in the company. Otherwise we're all going to have to practice our swimming lessons."

"Although we did rebuke Rebecca's suggestion we may have to plan our evacuation route through Nublar," said Gerry reluctantly.

"What?" Jake exclaimed. "Why not through Indigo?"

"Because Indigo has nothing," said Gerry. "No food, no power, no working phones, it has absolutely nothing. We won't be able to survive there for very long, but Nublar is close by and it has all of those things."

"You're right it has a lot, but it has one thing Indigo doesn't and that is dinosaurs," said Jake. "Real live dinosaurs and somehow I don't think we want to run from this island only to begin running again."

"Three raptors and one t-rex are a lot more manageable than what we have here," said Gerry. "At least there we'll have a fighting chance. And don't give me some schtick about wanting to die here than live there we'll drug you if we have to in order for you to come along."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Jake. "In the meantime Steve I'd like you to start implementing these escape plans and brief everyone on it. Tim should be able to multitask making that computer program for me and switching over the power to where it's needed."

"Yeah what is the deal with the program he's making anyway?" asked Steve. "He said you designated it top priority and wouldn't tell me what it was."

"Classified, don't worry about it," said Jake getting up. "You need me I'll be around."

"Doing what?" asked Steve. Jake shrugged.

"Preparing for our guest," he said and with that he left.


	13. Human Representation

September 12, 1994, Atlantic Ocean 4 months post Nublar: A twin bladed helicopter roared over the ocean towards the island of Sorna. Onboard alone in the passenger cabin sat a very nervous Ed Regis as he poured over various notes collected by the HR Department regarding what was happening on the island.

"God I hope none of this is true," said Regis trembling as he read reports of genocide, deaths, and mutilations, all of which were _officially_ rumors. "I'd sure hate to think of the madmen running loose on that island."

Mr. Regis worked for the HR Department of Ingen Bioengineering and over the last few months his department had been picking up rumors through the grapevine about strange goings on taking place on the last remaining Ingen island of Sorna, that were against company policy. But all requests to the board to receive the weekly reports had been vehemently denied with orders never to bring it up again.

"_I guess something must've spooked them_," thought Regis ever more worried. A week ago after no information being released, Peter Ludlow had suddenly issued a memo ordering the HR department to prepare to send someone to Sorna immediately to see what was going on there. So the HR team went through a quick and hasty search to see who was qualified to do a report on the fly and in the end Regis had pretty much drawn the short stick and been sent.

"Five minutes," said the pilot of the copter as the island was finally visible in the distance amidst all the mist ominously surrounding it. The copter tore headlong into it and began rocking slightly from the buffeting winds.

"Where's the damn beacon?" the pilot muttered up front trying to pick out what was ahead of him through the haze. Then a bright light appeared in the distance and the pilot breathed a sigh of relief. The helicopter then broke through the mist and roared over the Workers Village and Regis looked down in shock at the complete absence of personnel to be seen. He shivered, whether from the cold or not he couldn't tell, as the copter came in to land on the helipad just above the roof of the Operations Building. Leaning against the railing just outside the pad was a scientist with a lab coat on with his arms crossed looking up at the copter. As soon as it landed, Regis reluctantly disembarked as the thing took off immediately into the sky and away from the island. Regis watched it go before sighing and gaining his composure.

"Hi, I'm Ed Regis," said Regis holding out his hand to the scientist. To his relief the other scientist smiled and shook his hand.

"I'm Jake Whitacre, chief scientist of Ingen's facility on Isla Sorna otherwise known as Site B," responded the scientist.

"Nice place you have here," said Regis looking out at the mist filled village below them.

"It could almost be paradise. So what brings you to our fair island?" asked Jake amicably as he took some of Ed's bags and they both descended the staircase into the Operations Building.

"I'm just here to make sure that the remaining personnel on this island are being taken care of," responded Regis as they entered into the vacant building.

"Cool. Well as far as I know they're fine," said Jake as they advanced out into the empty village.

"How many people are left on this island?" asked Regis confused by the complete lack of personnel.

"75," responded Jake simply.

"75!" Regis shouted.

"Yep," responded Jake as they passed a building where a pair of workers were looking at a blueprint and fitting a door where before there had just been a wall. "There are about twenty-five people in the village itself with ten of them being scientists, the remaining fifty or so are scattered about the island struggling to maintain the basic facilities on this island."

The two entered into a long bungalow and advanced down a hallway with rooms on both sides of it. A couple workers passed by and gave Regis a curious glance before moving on. They approached a room which Jake opened and dropped Regis' luggage inside.

"Why don't you get some rest," Jake suggested. "It's probably been a long flight and I bet you have a busy day tomorrow. Besides, I have a couple things to take care of and it's probably best if you're not wandering the island on your own."

"Why not?" asked Regis wondering if he was concealing something.

"Let's just say the fences haven't been operating at 100 percent efficiency lately," said the scientist grimly before leaving and closing the door. Regis' eyes went wide-open at that statement as he finally noticed the roars of the jungle and that they now seemed to be closing in on him. Jake meanwhile left the building and headed back to the main building as he entered and found Gerry working on a diagram of the island.

"You ready?" he asked as Jake sat on the table. Jake sighed.

"Yeah," he said reluctantly. The two got up and walked down to the computer bay.

"So how's the HR guy?" asked Gerry. "I saw you two walk by but that was about it."

"He's harmless," said Jake waving it off. "He'll come, report the truth, and then nothing will come of it. Quite frankly I have more important things to be worrying about at the moment."

Gerry nodded as the two advanced into the control room and sat down at the main computer. He turned it on and then advanced through several screens before reaching one reading: Deactivate Fence, Y/N? Gerry typed in a number for the stegosaurus pen and looked at Jake reluctantly before holding his head in agony. Normally fences couldn't be deactivated unless the motion sensors detected no life forms in the pen itself. In the event of an emergency, or if the system was hacked into, the fences could be allowed to fail even with dinosaurs still in them. In order to keep power to the carnivore fences, and given the fact that ELE could never work fast enough to accommodate the continual loss of power on the island thanks to the decaying facilities, action had to be taken.

"We can't afford to wait any longer, it's the largest pen we have," said Jake who was no happier about it than Gerry was. "If we don't do something now we'll just be dead that much sooner."

"Fine," said Gerry as he hit the Y key and a prompt came up indicating them to swipe their cards through a card reader on the side of the computer. They both entered in their security codes and then the screen indicated: STEGOSAURUS FENCES DEACTIVATED. Gerry slumped down and laid his head down in front of the computer. Jake patted him on the shoulder reassuringly before getting up and going over to the nearby radio.

"Guys the stego fence is down," he said into it. "Hopefully those idiots won't notice it for awhile, but if they go lysine mad and breach it then we'll see."

Jake shut off the radio and sighed as he hefted a massive assault rifle into his hands and cocked it before heading into the dissection room. As soon as he entered blood splattered all over him but he shook it off and advanced towards Sam inside.

"What've you got?" Jake yelled over a nearby saw being grinded against flesh and bone by another scientist.

"A week," said Sam grimly as he handed a blood smeared report to Jake as a nearby dinosaur yelled out in intense pain causing Jake to cringe at the ear splitting noise. He then shook his head at both the noise and Sam's report before handing it back to him and leaving the room, with his shoes becoming soaked in the blood coating the floor. The scientist then advanced out into the daytime sky and bounded down the steps and across the moat as he headed for a group near the gates arming themselves for another hunt.

"Where you guys headed?" Jake asked as he neared them.

"Quadrant A-14, why?" asked one of the members.

"You think you can drop me off at B-12?" asked Jake.

"Yeah I guess. Why, you planning on sinking a few battleships?" asked the worker.

"Something like that," Jake said nodding as he got in with the other members of the group and the truck roared off into the island.

Quadrant B-12: The truck roared to a halt and Jake hopped off the bed and waved goodbye as the truck took off. Jake advanced down the road before passing a jeep and noticing a single worker hunched over in the background. As Jake neared it looked like the worker was hunched over nothing but then on closer inspection a contour of a dinosaur was barely visible. It was a dimetrodon perfectly blended in with its surroundings.

"Damn," said Jake amazed as he squatted down and poked the dead thing.

"Yeah it's something isn't it?" said the worker, Logan, who was drawing a blood sample from the beast.

"How'd you find it?" asked Jake. Logan stood up and went back to his jeep as Jake followed.

"I lucked out. It turns out the thing was already dead near one of the fences and the flies and other bugs could easily see through the invisibility screen. So I quickly snuck in, grabbed the thing and brought it out here," said Logan.

"You don't think any escaped in the meantime do you?" asked Jake. Logan shook his head.

"I checked the motion sensors, it's the same minus the one I took out," said Logan as he opened the back of the jeep and pulled out a small blood testing kit and ran a scan on it.

"So how're things going?" asked Logan as he waited for the test to go through. "With the state of affairs on the island I mean."

"Not so good," Jake conceded. "As I'm sure you're aware we've now had to start cutting power to still occupied pens just to keep up with energy demand. But this is still a temporary measure and will only prolong the inevitable."

"I see," said Logan uncertainly. "But given the fact that lysine madness is going to kick in very soon it's probably pointless anyway."

"That's why we've got to overcharge the predator fences when the madness finally kicks in and that's why we need tests like the one you're conducting out here in the field to tell us when that's going to happen. Steve says a week, what about you?" asked Jake.

"About the same," Logan confirmed as he pointed to a few other vials of blood located in a holder in the back of his jeep. "Although to be quite honest, I have been getting some bizarre readings as of late when testing these blood samples."

"Such as?" asked Jake.

"I don't know but something about the hormone counts in some of the creatures I've been examining have been off," Logan said crossing his arms.

"That's interesting," said Jake already knowing the reason why. "What do you think is happening here?"

"I don't even want to think about it," said Logan shaking his head.

"Probably for the best," said Jake shrugging.

"So you do know what's going on," said Logan not necessarily accusing him but point that fact out.

"Yes," said Jake.

"But you're not going to tell us are you?" said Logan.

"No," said Jake, leaving it at that instead of mentioning that Sam and Gerry knew, the last thing he needed was the people believing a conspiracy theory was afoot here.

"And ELE is just a way to combat this…inconsistency," Logan reasoned.

"Yes," said Jake. "Well more or less, it wasn't specifically designed to but we're now using it that way."

"Thank God," said Logan breathing a sigh of relief as the machine beeped indicating its scan was finished. "So long as somebody knows and we're not all just blissfully unaware of it."

Logan took the readout from the machine and looked it over.

"Looks like this girl kicked early," said Logan. "All of her muscles are in a hyper extended state indicating intense adrenalin surging through them and then the body just gave out from under it when it slipped into a coma and died."

"Why so soon do you think?" asked Jake.

"Could have been for a variety of reasons," Logan suggested. "I really don't think it's indicative of anything."

"Alright, well see that you get these findings to Sam ASAP," said Jake getting ready to leave.

"Jake, why are you here?" asked Logan. "My report is hardly anything out of the ordinary. You could've stayed back at the base and gotten it so why here and now?"

"Because out of all the things that scare me on this island, human and dinosaur alike, the only thing that really scares the shit out of me is the dimetrodon," said Jake simply as he headed off.

"They're breeding aren't they?" Logan called to him reluctantly. Jake stopped in his tracks.

"Yes," he said finally before moving out again and leaving Logan alone with his thoughts. The scientist then looked at the dead dinosaur before him and took out a can of gasoline and doused the creature before flicking a match at it and the beast lit up in flames rising high into the sky.

"You bastards are never taking me alive," Logan growled at the burning beast before leaving in his jeep. As he drove by Jake he honked as Jake waved and was about to continue on when alarms began blaring. Logan slammed on the breaks and the car skidded to a halt as Jake ran to the jeep and opened the door and leaned in as Logan grabbed the radio.

"What's going on?" he said into it.

Operations Building: Several people were running around the control room in a panic as on the large screen in front of them the outline around a dinosaur pen began blinking in red.

"The Carnosaurs kicked early," said Gerry into a headset as he began reviewing the data on his computer screen and a computer monitor, which showed the Carnosaurs trying to rip the fence apart despite the volts pumping through it and into them.

"And from the looks of things there's no stopping them," said Sam as he entered into the room and looked at the monitor.

Dimetrodon Pit: "We can't just flood more volts through their fences?" asked Jake confused.

"Not without drawing power from the pens of the more dangerous dinosaurs currently on Sorna. And then we'd be risking a burnout on multiple fences thus further compounding our problems. You two are the only ones in that general area who can deal with this. What do you suggest?"

Logan lowered the walkie and looked at Jake for guidance. Jake sighed and thought about it for a few moments before raising his gun.

"Let's light 'em up. And somebody needs to keep the HR guy occupied so he doesn't find out about this just yet," he said simply. "Gerry you're in charge if we don't come back."

Before Gerry could reply Jake hit the power button on the radio and climbed into the passenger seat as Logan hit the accelerator and tore off into the island.

Ten minutes later: Sparks flew from the Carnosaur pit as the dinosaurs as the Jeep roared to a halt. Jake leapt out along with Logan and both looked at the struggling dinosaurs before walking to the back of the jeep and opening it up.

"What weapons have you got?" Jake asked as he laid his assault rifle on the floor while opening up a long metal case located in the back.

"Beats me," said Logan shrugging. "I just grabbed whatever was in those crates and threw it in the back here."

More sparks flew from the fence as the dinosaurs spotted the humans outside and bit into the fence even harder before letting go in pain.

"How long before they cut through that?" Logan asked worried.

"I dunno," said Jake calmly as he pulled out a pair of rifles and discarded them onto the floor as he continued searching through the crate. "That's high tensile steel in those wires but I hope you'll forgive me when I say we weren't too keen on finding out how quickly a dino could bite through them."

"Fair enough," said Logan as Jake pulled out a massive gun with a small tripod located at the end of the barrel.

"Damn John, military grade weaponry? What the hell was I thinking letting you store this on an Ingen controlled island?" said Jake to himself.

'What is it?" asked Logan.

"It's a Cobra Assault Cannon," said Jake simply as he checked the magazine.

"I thought you said you knew Pacific Pharmaceuticals was having you store military grade weaponry on Indigo back when you unveiled these weapons to us after coming back from there," said Logan.

"I did but not that they were having me store anything this deadly. This is an anti-tank gun, perhaps even able to take down a bull elephant, but there's no reason John would need one unless…unless," Jake began repeating as his eyes widened.

"What?" asked Logan confused.

"You bastard!" shouted Jake suddenly.

"Excuse me?" said Logan shocked at the outburst.

"You lied to me, you did know about Nedry! You knew, you knew and you didn't tell me," Jake continued ranting at no one in particular. "I'm gonna kill you for this you little sh-."

"Jake!" Logan interrupted. "The issue at hand."

"Right," said Jake shaking off his earlier train of thoughts. He grabbed the assault rifle and the Cobra Assault canon, which he slung the barrel behind him to rest against his neck with the barrel pointed backwards as he climbed onto the roof of the jeep and rested the assault cannon on the roof as he laid down on top of it.

"Get in the car," he said to Logan.

"What, why?" asked the scientist confused.

"Because they are going to be pissed when one of their members suddenly explodes," said Jake cocking the gun. "And I can't outrun them on foot and neither can you."

Logan nodded understanding and got in the jeep and turned it on. Jake meanwhile stared down the scope of the rifle at the dinosaurs trying to tear the fence apart as he rested his finger on the trigger.

"C'mon don't do this," he said softly as he looked at the fierce bipedal carnivores. "Don't tear through the fence, just back away."

The dinosaurs continued their attempts to rip the fence apart while screaming in pain and agony. Jake zoomed in on them with the scope and saw the madness in their eyes as a result of the lysine deficiency. Then one by one the dinosaurs fell into their comas leaving just one left who continue tearing despite the pain and madness and finally ripped through the fence.

"Oh no," said Logan looking in his rearview mirror as the beast slowly stumbled towards them, moving on will alone as its body's systems began to shut down one by one. Finally the beast began coughing up blood as its mouth foamed over and then the creature collapsed with a massive thud onto the ground as it shifted briefly, groaned, and its eyes closed. Jake hopped off the roof and hefted the assault cannon as he slowly approached the beast. As he finally reached its head, the creature looked at him weakly through its drug filled mind and then closed them as Jake swung the barrel down so it was resting against the dino's head. Jake sighed and pulled down on the trigger only for the gun to click indicating the safety was still on. Jake threw the weapon to the side and walked over to the carnosaur's neck and squatted down. The scientist then pulled out a needle and a syringe and injected the dinosaur before tossing the vial aside and walking back to the jeep.

"Let's go," said Jake to Logan as he tossed the assault canon into the back.

"What about her?" asked Logan nodding back towards the unconscious carnosaur.

"There's been enough death for one day here," said Jake. "We'll let mother nature decide its fate, it's the last of its species and I'm not getting involved this time. If it escapes from its coma that's fine, if not oh well. So let's go I need to get some sleep before I figure out how to entertain the HR guy without him losing his sanity tomorrow when I give him a grand tour of the place."

"I guess things have changed around here," Logan noted.

"Like all good creatures we must adapt to our situation and cope with it in our own way," said Jake. "Life found a way to bring the dinosaurs back from the dead I'm just hoping it'll find a way for us to survive this ordeal."

"Let's hope so," said Logan as he hit the accelerator and the jeep roared off into the jungle.


	14. Learning the Truth

Anguirus111 Note: In the last chapter, Logan mentioned he didn't know the dinos were breeding even though Jake had revealed it earlier. The reason for this was that Logan was busy conducting tests and never went to the meeting to find out about it.

Sorna: Logan dropped off Jake at the Operations Building before heading off back into the island to conduct some more research as the afternoon sun sank low in the sky. As Jake entered, he got some claps from the remaining five workers in the building before entering into the control room and laying his rifle across a table.

"Nice job," said Gerry as he twirled a pen in his hand. "Not one shot fired, very impressive."

"I refuse to kill the last member of any species," was all Jake said in his defense.

"So what'd you inject that thing with?" Gerry asked as he pointed to the monitor showing the comatose carnosaur.

"Lysine," said Jake distantly.

"What?" Gerry said. "I thought we were out!"

"I found a vial of it wedged in my safe and I've been keeping it on hand in the case of an incident like this," said the scientist simply as he typed a couple commands in the computer. He then looked at Gerry's shocked expression.

"What?"

"So now there's fierce carnivore on the island, outside of a fence, that for now has no lysine concerns," said Gerry incredulously.

"It's comatose," Jake shot back. "It might not even wake up, but I'm not going to sit idly and just let it succumb. Besides, if it becomes a nuisance than we'll take it out but until then it owes us."

"Yeah a debt we'll never be able to collect," Gerry snorted. "Besides what about Steviesaurus, she'll need a shot soon too."

"She doesn't need it," said Jake absently.

"Huh?" asked Gerry confused.

"What?" said Jake snapping to attention. "Oh, sorry, I meant that she won't need any shots for awhile."

"Oh, okay," said Gerry still confused by his earlier statement. "So what'll we do about HR guy then?"

"The way I see it is this. We can't act like we normally have this time around," said Jake leaning forward.

"I don't understand," said Gerry confused.

"The way I see it, when he conducts his report, everything we're doing will seem like a normal and logical series of events. This island is in danger of collapsing so we're terminating the dinosaurs to protect ourselves and Ingen's personnel on this island. As a result, Ingen isn't going to do jack regarding this island and we'll still be stuck out here as the fences finally fail and the dinos get us," said Jake. "In order for Ingen to do anything, we have to scare the piss out of this guy."

"I think he'll be scared anyway," said Gerry as the monitor flashed showing a grassy field and a group of gallimimuses being chased by a trio of jeeps as muzzle fire was seen and several of the dinos dropped. "But I do see your point. Ingen has been reluctant to do anything yet and until we show them something drastic they probably won't feel obligated to do anything. So do you have a plan?"

"Yeah, ham everything up. Make it seem like we're bloodthirsty madmen than people who are just afraid for their lives," said Jake as he got up to leave. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Later Jake," said Gerry. Jake gave him a peace sign and left back to his office where he stepped over the sleeping form of Steviesaurus on his floor and grabbed a blanket and laid down on his worn out couch and instantly fell asleep as the sun finally set in the distance bringing an end to yet another chaotic day on the Ingen controlled island of Sorna.

Morning: Jake woke up with a start as he thought he heard an angry dinosaur roar right outside his window before realizing that it was just an engine backfiring out somewhere in the village. Jake sighed as he closed his eyes to ready himself for the day's events with Ed Regis before he opened them and tried to get up only to find that task impeded by a heavy weight on his chest. Looking down he noticed Steviesaurus asleep on his stomach, having apparently crawled up there during the night. Jake just shook his head.

"Oy vey," he said simply as Steviesaurus yawned and stretched out and looked at Jake wide-eyed.

"It must be nice to be young and naïve," said Jake scratching behind the protoceratops frill as the dinosaur growled in satisfaction. "You have no idea what's happening on this island and you never will. Be grateful for that."

Jake lifted up and set the dinosaur on the ground who ambled off to tear apart whatever food Jake had left on the ground for her. Jake meanwhile walked over to a mirror hanging on his wall and looked sleepily into it.

"Boy do I look like hell," he said to no one in particular. Jake's hygiene had gone steeply downhill following Nublar's collapse and so too had everyone else's, but it had been such a gradual change that it had taken looking at a new face for him to notice it.

"_Has it really been four months?_" thought Jake incredulously before looking down at yet another sweat soaked shirt from being out in the jungle. He sighed and quickly changed clothes without bothering to shower as water was at a premium these days on Sorna and had to be carefully rationed. Jake's alarm clock began flickering as the power hiccupped yet again. Jake scowled and picked up his phone to call the generator building only to find the line was completely dead.

"Figures," Jake said disgusted. "Guess that explains why John hasn't gotten in touch with me yet over my 'revelation'."

Jake just dropped the receiver on his desk and picked up the cord so that Steviesaurus wouldn't chew on it and placed it on his desk. He was about to leave when he turned and saw the small dinosaur whimpering to be let out. Jake laughed and put on his black Ingen hat.

"Let's go girl," he said mocking defeat as he pushed the door open. Steviesaurus hopped happily and trotted out the door as Jake followed her into the control room. As he was walking from one row of consoles to the next, he noticed Tim out cold in front of one of the terminals. Steviesaurus leapt onto one of the chairs and then the long table and walked over to the sleeping form looking at it before sniffing its hair. Jake meanwhile poked Tim who instantly shot up and startled Steviesaurus into jumping backwards.

"All systems operational!" he shouted to no in particular.

"You need to calm down," said Jake. "And get out here more often."

Tim looked around bleary eyed before putting on his glasses.

"Yeah and go out there with the dinosaurs ready to rip me apart? No thanks," he snorted. He looked at Jake before his eyes went wide-open.

"Oh sorry, sir," he mumbled. "I didn't mean to… I mean. It's not like I want to go against your advice but…"

"Don't worry about it," said Jake waving him off. "So what's the deal with that program I asked you for?"

"It's coming along," said Tim powering up his computer. "I'm running it through the beta tests right now."

"I don't know much about computers Tim," said Jake confused by his terms.

"I basically have a trial version completed and I'm testing it out before unrolling the finished product," said the programmer simply.

"Ah," said Jake. "Thanks again, just let me know when it's finally ready."

"Will do," said Tim simply as Jake picked up Steviesaurus and left the room headed for the bungalow.

"Hi-yo," said Gerry waving at him weakly as he stumbled in through the main doors as Jake laughed and exited them into the village. He made his way past a stalled Bronco in the road as one of the mechanics pounded on the engine with a wrench before giving up.

"Leave it," Jake said as he passed them. "It's not like there's anywhere we can put it anyway."

The mechanics nodded in agreement and headed off back to the garage as Jake entered into the lobby of the bungalow to see Ed Regis eating some cereal from one of the many remaining sealed plastic boxes.

"How old is this?" Regis asked amidst louder than usual crunching. Jake set Steviesaurus on a seat near the table and got two boxes of cereal from the cabinet and opened one and set it in front of the dinosaur who noisily began gobbling away as Jake took a plastic spoon and began eating his cereal as well.

"At least four months old, maybe more," said Jake simply. "I can't seem to recall when the last supply shipment came here but it was before the incident at Jurassic park, I do know that."

Regis looked at him shocked.

"How've you managed to survive all this time?" he asked astonished.

"It hasn't been easy," Jake admitted. "But with the recalls we've needed to use less and less supplies. Unfortunately, on the other hand loosing all those people makes keeping the basic facilities up and running, that much more difficult."

"You mind if I record this?" asked Regis putting a tape recorder on the table.

"Knock yourself out," said Jake as Steviesaurus swung her container around spraying cereal everywhere.

"Hey don't be a messy eater, Stevie!" said Jake cleaning up the mess.

"Stevie?" Regis asked confused after setting the recorder on the table and turning it on.

"Yeah, named after her mother Stephanie Sandelder," said Jake throwing the cereal in the trash.

"Oh I know her," said Regis as Jake was so startled by that comment that he nearly dropped the cereal he was carrying.

"Before or after she was fired," responded Jake bitterly.

"She still works for Ingen as a secretary while finishing up school," said Regis becoming disgusted with his food and pushing it away.

"I did not know that," said the scientist. "But considering we haven't had any contact with the outside world for four months aside from recall notices I guess it shouldn't have been that surprising."

"No contact!" said Regis again shocked. "Why not?"

"Because Ingen has sworn off this island," said Jake bitterly. "We're something they're trying to forget, both mentally _and_ legally. Because if we're not here and Ingen doesn't have assets here, then they don't have to pay for insurance, repair costs, food costs, everything. That's why this island's fallen apart so badly and if Ingen had only bothered to spend a little bit more money on this place then we could've recouped our losses. But now with the way things are going, they're set to loose this island and any remaining trace of the dinosaur revivification project."

"I take it you can't be too happy about that," said Regis drinking an extremely stale bottle of water that he nearly gagged on.

"No," Jake admitted defeated. "But by this point I've given up on Ingen trying to fix things around here."

"What makes you say that?" asked Regis.

"Considering that we had a mutiny here a couple weeks back and Ingen did nothing to stop it, despite the fact that they knew it was happening, nothing they can do will possibly change my mind at this point," said Jake nonchalantly.

Regis spewed out his drink at that statement.

"You had a mutiny!" he shouted in shock.

"Yeah, Dillon and a group of others tried to take over before he blundered into the pterosaur cage and was slaughtered. Isn't that why you're here?" Jake asked, figuring Ingen would never reveal ELE to anyone.

"No," Regis said frankly.

"Then why?" asked Jake confused. He poured some water into a bowl and laying it on the ground where Steviesaurus began drinking it.

"To ensure that the well being of the personnel on this island," said Regis, repeating what he'd been told to say.

"Uh-huh," said Jake not entirely convinced. "Well no offense but you're getting here a little bit too late."

"You think this island is gone," Regis accused. Jake nodded solemnly.

"And the best we can do is to brace ourselves," Jake whispered.

"What?" asked Regis. Jake laughed and shook his head.

"Nothing, let's head for the Operations Building so we can plan out your tour of the island," said Jake simply. Regis nodded amicably as Jake picked up Steviesaurus who bleated at being moved.

"You hush," said Jake to her as Regis shut off the tape recorder and pulled out a camcorder and began videotaping the walk over to the massive building in the background. Jake walked in complete silence as Regis videotaped how empty the village was before he heard popping noises, like fireworks, and then a massive dinosaur roar in the distance. Regis looked at the sound utterly confused and then even more confused when Jake didn't seem to notice it.

"What the hell was that?" demanded Regis a couple moments later.

"What was what?" Jake asked stopping, truly confused.

"That noise," said Regis pointing to the air. "It sounded like…gunshots."

Regis could barely contain himself when he came to that realization.

"Beats me," said Jake shrugging and continuing towards the Operations Building. "But if it was something, I'll bet it's just some workers putting a dino out of its misery. That's not against Ingen Policy just good ol' Liquidation of Assets."

"No, I guess not," Regis admitted reluctantly. He had studied Ingen's policies regarding liquidation of assets and mercy killings were on the list of acceptable actions. The two then finally reached the Operations Building and pushed inside. Again the place was empty save for Mandy and Billy lying on a pair of couches throwing cards into a hat situated between the two couches.

"Hey you two look alive," said Jake with mock enthusiasm. "The HR guy's here and he'll fire you two if you don't do some work."

"Whatever," said Mandy not caring and not moving either.

"At least if we're fired we'll get off this stinking island," said Billy upset.

"Can't you just feel the love?" Jake asked to the camera. "Course I guess you wouldn't would you, Ludlow? Ha, ha."

Regis shut off the camera. "You probably shouldn't antagonize him."

"It hardly matters," said Jake as Regis turned the camera back on. "I'm going to be the last one of this island, provided I even am allowed to leave, and the day I return to San Diego I'm quitting Ingen forever."

"Why's that?" asked Regis.

"I'm fed up with it all. I'm tired of hearing dinosaurs roaring 24/7, I'm tired of the constant breakdowns around here, and I'm tired of Ingen not doing anything about it," said Jake bitterly.

"Where will you go?" asked Regis.

"Well first of all, aside from eight months ago when I last left this island for a couple days to go to Costa Rica to cool off for a bit, I haven't taken a vacation in quite awhile. I'm gonna do that and then go straight to Pacific Pharmaceuticals, pick up my workload, go to my office, and get to work," said Jake as he left the room followed by Regis who continued filming.

"What makes you think they'll even give you a job?" asked Regis.

"I know John Brown, he'll give me a job no questions asked," said Jake simply as they pushed into the control room.

"May I present the only remaining programmer on the island Tim…Tim…," said Jake before he began confused. "What the hell is your last name anyway?"

"Who cares?" said Tim typing away on his computer.

"Right," said Jake simply. "Well moving along."

The two left the room as Regis appeared a little perturbed by the fact that there was only one programmer left to ensure the systems worked on the island. Ingen rules dictated five programmers be on hand at one time following the Nedry debacle that had overwhelmed John Arnold's capabilities.

"So where too now?" asked Regis.

"Wherever you want to go I guess," said Jake shrugging. "There's not really much to see on this island besides trees and miles of perimeter fences."

"What about all the dinosaurs?" asked Regis with some enthusiasm. "I've never seen them myself besides the photos and I've been looking forward to it."

"Here's Steviesaurus," said Jake holding her up so she and the HR agent were at eye level. "Isn't that good enough?"

"No," said Regis shaking his head. "I need to document this entire island. Right now I do have a good amount of grievances to bring up to the board but I need to have everything in some record or another."

"Suit yourself but I don't know believe me whatever you're expecting to find out there. Like I said, Ingen does not care at all about us," said Jake. "As such we're free to do as we please."

"Speaking of which," said Regis reluctantly but realizing he had to get it out now. "Are you torturing the dinosaurs on this island?"

"Oh," said Jake a little put off by his abruptness. "_Here goes._"

"We are," he responded. Regis had been drinking some water and did an immediate spit take all over Jake.

"Sorry," he said shocked.

"No problem," said Jake brushing himself off. "I take it you didn't know that."

"No," said Regis. "But to be honest given what you've told me it really doesn't come as a surprise. Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I've been sending weekly reports on the subject. Though I can't say it's a surprise that Ingen would withhold something like that from you," said Jake simply. "Though I must admit you're taking this better than I expected."

"I'm still in shock," said Regis shaking his head vigorously. "Once I witness the implications of what you're doing here then I'll probably loose it."

As he said that, Jake saw a group of workers loading onto the bed of a truck. Jake looked at it thoughtfully as an evil thought and an evil grin crept onto his face.

"Why don't we go ride with those guys?" Jake suggested. "It'll be quicker and easier and we'll see some dinos."

"Fine by me," said Regis still a little bit shaken by Jake's earlier admittance. The two advanced towards the truck and both got into the bed.

"Hello boys, I don't know if you know who this guy is, but he's Ed Regis from the HR department," said Jake to the others in the truck as it took off straight into the jungle beyond.


	15. Adding the Final Pieces

Anguirus111 Note: I'm not saying what happened to Regis on his trip into the jungle with Jake and the others in this story. The reason for that being is that the entire scene appears in Demons of the Past and I have no desire to rehash the entire thing. That and copy and paste doesn't work right any more when taking things from :D. And no, I don't have any idea where Steviesaurus disappeared to either considering I don't believe she was in the truck bed when Regis witnessed what he witnessed.

Workers Village: The truck rumbled to a halt back in the village with a fine layer of blood on it on top of a fine layer of caked mud and dirt.

"My God," said Regis sickened to death at what he had seen out there. He stumbled along the dirt road with his camera in his hand before just flat out collapsing on the ground from shock. Jake and Gerry approached him and stood over his body.

"Well he took that well, all things considering," said Gerry shrugging.

"Still, his reaction does put me a little bit ill at ease," said Jake. "Are things really that bad here? I mean I realize all the senseless killing a couple months back was wrong, but now we're doing it for a very important reason."

"Yeah but he doesn't know that," said Gerry as he lifted Regis up and over his shoulders as he dragged him back to the bungalow. "And you've been having hallucinations where you're combating your conscience about all this, and don't try to deny it, its obvious."

Jake nodded grimly.

"And what the hell were you thinking saying that we should grab the thing's tongue?" asked Gerry with a laugh. "That's just gross."

Jake laughed. "It seemed like the savage thing to do."

"Yeah it's a regular _Lord of the Flies_ around here," responded Gerry shaking his head. Steviesaurus squeaked at that moment in Jake's arms as it tried to get free from his grip and descend on a single blade of grass growing on the roadway.

"Don't worry," said Jake to the thing. "You can be the main character Piggy."

Gerry got a huge laugh out of that one as the dinosaur sensed it was being made fun of and snapped at Jake.

"Easy, only joking," said Jake as he set the beast down and it ran and quickly ate the single blade of grass before returning and walking next to the scientist.

"What should we do with Regis?" Gerry asked.

"Leave him with Stormy until he wakes up," said Jake simply.

"Until who wakes up, him or Stormy?" chuckled Gerry.

"Oy vey," said Jake defeated. "Listen, just because that man has a Pac-man obsession doesn't mean we can make fun of him."

"Yeah well he's no Dr. LaSalle," Gerry grumbled.

"Yeah I don't understand why they recalled the Doctor yet left the physician," said Jake as they pushed the doors open. They put Regis down on one of the few beds in the hospital and went to find Stormy. They found him hunched over his Pac-Man arcade machine asleep with a half eaten Dagwood in his right hand that was hanging over the side of the machine. On the screen it read: GAME OVER.

"I say we unplug this thing, it's wasting too much juice," said Gerry heading for the outlet.

"Don't," said Jake stopping him. "That's the only thing keeping him sane and with it off, if someone gets injured we'll be screwed."

"I guess you do have a point," Gerry admitted reluctantly before he began poking Stormy. "Hey Derek it's time to wake up."

Derek slowly stirred to life before he shot up suddenly, startling Jake and Gerry along with Steviesaurus.

"Wakka, wakka, wakka!" he shouted before looking around. "Oh hey hi guys!"

He chomped down on his half-remaining Dagwood as he looked at the two scientists.

"Nice sandwich," said Gerry disgusted at the sight of the thing. Stormy looked at him defensively while holding the thing protectively.

"You want a dagwood, you go fight your way through miles of jungle, and somehow _miraculously_ make your own!" he shouted annoyed.

"Yeah how'd you do that anyway?" asked Jake remembering when Stormy vanished a couple weeks back only to reappear with the sandwich in hand.

"I dunno," said Stormy confused. "I blacked out."

"Anyway," said Gerry trying to stop this bizarre conversation. "Regis is out cold, we're leaving him here until he wakes up. Check him out and then contact us when he does."

"Wakka," Stormy acknowledged before heading back to his game.

"This from the only guy on the island not participating in Project ELE," said Gerry shaking his head incredulously as he and Jake left and proceeded into the roadway. At that exact moment, two workers ran out from an alleyway and hit the ground.

"Get down!" they shouted as Jake and Gerry dropped as an explosion tore up dirt and asphalt nearby pelting the entire area. As soon as the temporary rainstorm finished, the two workers got up and clapped hands as Jake brushed himself off.

"Project HSWS?" surmised Jake still a little frazzled.

"You got that right," said Gerry coughing up some dirt before wiping his mouth with his sleeve. "We've finally finished wiring the entire place and have installed multiple exit points in every building. We're not going to give up without a fight."

"We'd better not," said Jake darkly. "Because I am not going to see this island turned into some sort of Lost World."

"I hear that," said Gerry as they both advanced towards the Operations Building. "Now you're sure about not introducing the predators into the herbivore pens to both lessen the population and conserve on power?"

"Yeah I'm sure," said Jake as they entered into the building and made their way to the Control Room. "Because when the lysine madness finally kicks in all the dinos are going to be storming those fences and they're going to go into a hyper-aggressive state and I'd just as soon they go after each other than us."

"But if your theory is right and they have come to hate us during the last four months or so…" Gerry trailed off.

"That's why we have to prepare for the worst and brace ourselves for when those fences finally fail," said Jake before sighing. "And we have to get Ed Regis out of here in a week tops because if he isn't out of here and those fences fail, then Ingen is never going to know what's going on here."

"Assuming that they don't try and truly bury this project," Gerry pointed out.

"But unfortunately for them they hate lawsuits more than they hate this place," Jake reminded him with a chuckle before dropping his humorous tone. "And they'll have a hell of a lot of them if they abandon us here."

"Plus your wrath right?" asked Gerry. "I don't think anyone would want to face that."

"I'm not leaving this island," said Jake pointedly. "Not without a fight. I'm not leaving until I am personally satisfied that every person has already been evacuated first."

"You know I was thinking," said Gerry after a couple moments silence. "  
That there are two more spots available on that helicopter. I think we should have a lottery and pick two of our members to be evacuated with Regis and tell Ingen a better account of what's been going on here since the last recall over a month ago."

"I agree," Jake said nodding. "Although neither me, you, or Sam can be in the drawing."

"Yeah," said Gerry a little glum but knowing that it was the only way. "When should we announce it?"

"Later on in the week," said Jake. "We'll run a computer program to randomly pick the two lucky winners but I'd just as soon rather not risk Tim rigging it somehow."

"You really think he would?" asked Gerry as they entered into the Control Room.

"Anything's possible when it comes to protecting ones own life, this island is evidence enough of that fact," said Jake bitterly. "I'm not taking any chances, real or imaginary."

"Alright," Gerry conceded. "So what do we do now while waiting for sleeping beauty to wake up?"

"Jake, you're not going to believe this," said Tim as he looked at a radar display. "But it appears that we have incoming."

"What?" Jake asked astounded. "Are you sure it's not just a glitch? We seem to be having those a lot lately and as I recall making sure the radar antenna works correctly isn't high on our list of priorities."

"We haven't had any problems with it yet. Granted we did have to clear some debris off of it from that tropical storm, but it was working fine when Ed Regis showed up," said Tim.

"So what is it?" asked Gerry as he and Jake came over and looked at the radar display.

"A jet of some kind, but its transponder signal doesn't match to anything owned by Ingen," said Tim as he pointed to both the dot on the screen advancing towards the island and then to a gigantic book giving transponder codes for every Ingen owned vehicle.

"Are you sure it's not just going to buzz us?" asked Jake skeptical about the whole thing.

"No, it's definitely entering into a standard landing path for this island," said Tim assuredly. "It'll be landing on the runway in fifteen minutes."

"Who is the nearest team to the runway?" asked Gerry.

"Team A-27 but they're busy mapping out defensive positions that we'll need at the end of the week," said Tim shuddering.

"Fine," said Jake leaving. "Gerry let's roll."

"Right," said Gerry following him out of the room. They advanced out to the parking garage and got in Jake's Interceptor and took off for the landing strip. Ten minutes later they arrived just as the plane appeared in the distance heading for the dirt runway.

"It's a leer jet," said Gerry whistling as he looked at the thing through a pair of binoculars at the thing. "Somebody must be rich."

"Hammond?" Jake suggested.

"In an unlisted transport, it'd have to be extremely doubtful," Gerry pointed out. The jet now lowered its landing gear and settled into a final approach as it soared low over the trees.

"Gun runners?" Gerry suggested with a laugh.

"That wouldn't sound too bad right now, we could use any armaments we can get our hands on right now," said Jake as the plane landed on the ground and bumped along as it roared past the two scientists before finally slowing down. It smoothly turned around and rolled back towards them before coming to a complete halt. The jet was silver colored and completely lacking any identifying markings save for the transponder code on the tail fin. Jake swung up his rifle to aim at the exit hatch as Gerry un-slung his weapon as well. The hatch opened and lowered producing a flight of stairs but no one emerged.

"You're an unregistered transport on an Ingen controlled island," Jake called into the craft. "Come out with your hands up, you're officially under arrest for industrial espionage."

A duffel bag flew out of the plane and landed on the ground in front of them as a figure emerged in a jungle excursion outfit.

"Is that anyway to greet an old friend?" the figure asked sarcastically. Jake groaned and lowered his rifle.

"For God's sake what hell are you doing here?" the scientist demanded annoyed.

"Your phone lines died, I'm just here to make sure you're still alive," said the figure with a grin as he advanced down onto the ground and picked up his bag.

"We're fine," said Jake promptly. "Now get back on that plane and get out of here unless you have some sort of death wish."

"I have a week don't I?" the figure asked. "And I fully intend to spend my vacation here."

"Like hell you-," began Jake before Gerry interrupted him.

"Who is this person?" the vet demanded. Jake sighed and held his head in agony.

"Gerry Harding meet Pacific Pharmaceuticals CEO and royal pain in the ass John Brown," said Jake.

"So you're the thorn in Jake's side," said Gerry shaking hands with the CEO.

"That's right," said John with a grin.

"If you don't mind my asking, what is your fascination with our fair island?" asked Gerry suspiciously.

"Well first of all I've come bearing gifts," said John pointing back to his plane. A group of workers were hauling down several crates through the hatch and onto the ground as the CEO walked back to them. He took a crowbar and popped open one of the boxes revealing an assortment of military-grade weapons.

"Standard RPG's, Cobra Assault Cannons, miniguns, plasma based-pulse rifles, the works," he said taking one out and aiming at a tree. John squeezed the trigger and a shell rocketed out of the gun taking out a nearby tree.

"Basically what you'd need to take out a less than small army," said the CEO putting the weapon back. "Or for instance a herd of creatures that should've been extinct sixty-five million years ago, either way they're all yours."

"Why?" asked Jake. "Why are you turning this island into your own private dumping ground for illegal weaponry?"

"Because like you I have no desire to see this island or the rest of the world fall to the dinos," said John simply. "And as to your question Mr. Harding, I'm interested in the technology this island possesses. Not to clone dinosaurs like Biosyn mind you, but to use it to create new designer drugs to improve humanity's chances of survival against deadly diseases and infections."

Jake's eyes widened at the mentioning of Biosyn.

"How long did you know?" he asked darkly.

"Know what?" asked John feigning confusion.

"How long did you know that Nedry was going to turn traitor on Ingen?" asked Jake again. John sighed deeply.

"I don't think this is the time or place to discuss this," he said avoiding the question.

"We will discuss it now," said Jake harshly. "How long?"

"It's not that simple," said John. "But if you want the truth then fine I'll tell you the truth but it's not going to be what you want to hear."

"Which is?" Jake demanded.

"That I knew about Nedry and chose to keep quiet about it in the hopes that Ingen would fall so Pacific Pharmaceuticals could easily acquire it," said John. "It's not."

"So go on, tell me the truth then," said Jake.

"Can we talk about this inside the plane?" John asked pointing back to the open hatchway.

"No!" said Jake. "We're going to discuss this now and in the open."

John sighed before shrugging defeated. He snapped his fingers and a worker brought out a pair of chairs that they sat in as Gerry went off to inspect the weaponry as well as call for a transport. Jake and John sat down as John sighed and held his head.

"Alright," he said finally sitting back up. "You want to know about Nedry? Fine, here goes. The truth of the matter is that yes, I do have spies in other organizations that I think are trying to horn in on my market. Now nine times out of ten I don't act on the information I am given. The only times I act are when that information involves my company directly, whether through theft or other means. Anyway, seven months ago, one of my spies in Biosyn reported a small item indicating that someone in Ingen was willing to sell the company out for money. This report took awhile in reaching my desk but when it did, three weeks after it having been first received, I had my spy devote more resources to finding out who was the traitor. A couple months later, this around the time that Jeffrey was killed Jake, my spy indicated that whoever was selling out Ingen was going to meet up with Lewis Dodgson, hopefully that name means something you, in a café in San Jose. Afterwards I soon learned about what happened on Nublar regarding Jeffrey and how distraught you were over it. I decided that now would be the perfect time to try and kill two birds with one stone so I persuaded you to come to San Jose to talk about what happened. Because remember Jake you weren't his only friend, Henry and I knew him too. So we talked in that outdoor café and I recall you mentioning that Arnold Nedry was sitting at one of the other tables. At that point I realized that he must be the turncoat that I was looking for, but you said you had to leave and took off just as Lewis Dodgson arrived. I tried to call you back, but if I spoke to loud and chased after you only to bring you back, it'd probably tip off the two individuals and the opportunity would be lost to catch them in the act."

Jake's jaw dropped at this part of the story.

"I almost went back to say that I should pay for part of the bill before deciding that you should pay in full for making my life such a living hell over the years. What could've been," said Jake. "So what happened next?"

"Well naturally I couldn't hear a word they were saying, save for Nedry yelling out that Dodgson was with him, no one cares indeed Nedry, but I soon found out," said John. "A couple moments later, Dodgson produced a can of barbasol that he promptly unscrewed to reveal a hidden compartment underneath that had storage clips for small round pellet shaped objects."

"The embryos," said Jake with realization as he remember John's earlier conversation him right after Nublar fell. "So that's how he was planning on getting them off of the island."

"Yeah, anyway they shortly went their separate ways, after Dodgson astonishingly paid Nedry's check, and I ran off to the local Pacific Pharmaceuticals branch to consider my options of which there were only two. I could either tell Ingen directly or have my spies start spreading rumors. But realizing that there wasn't any time, I called directly to Peter Ludlow himself and told him the whole story," said John Brown leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. Nearby Gerry was loading the crates onto a semi while also listening amazed at the whole story.

"And he didn't believe you," Jake completed before groaning. "Pete, you piece of crap couldn't you have just listened to someone else for once?"

"Then he threatened me with legal action for attempting to stir up trouble. He said that if I told anyone else about this he'd personally bring Pacific Pharmaceuticals to court for attempting to spread panic and chaos in a rival corporation. Then he hung up leaving me with a dilemma on my hands, on whether or not to call Nublar and warn them or just clam up and hope nothing bad would happen as a result of Nedry's actions," responded the CEO.

"I can imagine," said Jake leaning forward. "So what'd you decide?"

"I decided to hell with it, those people on that island do not deserve what's coming to them. So I decided to call Nublar. Unfortunately our radio transmitter was in the last phases of an overhaul and was finally finished that night. As soon as it was fixed, I immediately dialed Nublar and…damnit," said John getting distracted as he held his head in agony as his eyes began to water. "Those people didn't deserve what happened to them!"

"The line was dead," Jake finished as he leaned back in his chair. "Don't tear yourself up over this you did everything you could."

"I could've done more. No, I should've done more. Instead I did nothing," said John.

"That's not true," Jake responded. "You did ship those weapons to Indigo in anticipation of something like what Nedry was going to pull."

"That's right," said John nodding his head. "I forgot about that. I did ship those weapons to you, both because of what happened to Jeffrey and because of this whole spy situation. I'm sorry to unload all of this on you, but it's been a burden I've been shouldering for the past several months and…I just had to tell someone. And it could have only been you…I'm sorry if that's unfair."

"Its fine," said Jake waving it off. "Don't live your life with a guilt that you can't escape from. Believe me I know, I have that guilt and it's tearing me up, both physically and emotionally."

"You've got to let go Jake," John warned. "You have to move past Jeffrey's death. If what I've been experiencing with this guilt is even a fraction of what you've been feeling then I find it a miracle you can even stand, much less talk."

"The hatred I have burning inside of me for all dinosaurs is the only thing keeping me going right now. I pushed past empty weeks ago and am operating on pure adrenalin alone and if I were relieved of my driving force in life, I'd just curl up and die. I won't do that, not now. Not with the fences about to fail."

John nodded. "Good luck."

"Luck can't save us now," said Jake darkly. "Only Regis' report can do that and right now I don't have much faith in it accomplishing anything. The bottom line is that nothing short of a natural disaster is going to Ingen to finally get off their butts and finally evacuate us."

"Maybe not," said John. "I am attempting to pursue legal action to force Ingen to evacuate you off of this island under the guise of hazardous working conditions. Unfortunately I have to channel it through the Costa Rican government and there's a lot of red tape but I think I can get away with it in a few months to finally be able to evacuate the whole lot of you off of this deathtrap."

"Well I'm going back to the village with these weapons," said Gerry finally butting in. "I'll see you two around sometime. Mr. Brown it's been a pleasure."

John nodded and shook the vet's hand again.

"You ever need a job I think we can create a position for you in our research park in Djibouti," said John to the departing worker.

"I'll think about it," said Gerry with a grin. "Bye."

He boarded the semi with his Ingen workers and it departed into the island only to be swallowed up by the trees.

"Well I've got to get going," said John standing up as his workers filed back into the plane.

"Somehow I didn't really think you were staying for a week," said Jake. "So why come at all? Why supply us with these weapons that you'll never get back?"

"Guilt," John explained. "And shame. I will see you again and you will work for me…or at least according to one of my spies at any rate."

Jake's eyes widened. "Regis is your spy? You son of a-!"

John laughed. "One of my two I have in your company, unless you want to be the third. Anyway, please let him finish his job, Ingen has to know what's going on here."

"Will do," said Jake as John headed up the stairs to his plane before stopping.

"Oh," he said. "Before I forget, do you want me to deliver anything back to anyone on the mainland? Somehow I doubt you get mail calls anymore."

Jake looked back to his Interceptor and sighed. "Actually yes there is but it'll take me a minute to get it."

"We'll be waiting," said John disappearing into his craft. Jake entered into his Interceptor as Steviesaurus sat in the front seat asleep. Jake smiled and rubbed the dino's frill before opening the glove compartment and taking out a sheet of paper that he quickly scrawled a note on. Before taking out a needle and syringe and tapped it before looking at Steviesaurus.

"I hope you live a long and full life without me," he said to the thing.

Later: Jake walked towards the plane carrying a wooden crate with an envelope on top. He walked up the ramp and set the crate in one of the empty sections of the plane and secured it in.

"There we go," he said rubbing his hands.

"Now we'll kidnap you and take you off this island so you won't die here," said John abruptly. Jake looked at him wide-eyed as John began laughing at his expression.

"Just kidding," he said. "But be careful Jake, it's a real jungle out there."

"I will," said Jake nodding.

"So where's this going?" asked John putting to the crate.

"Stephanie Sandelder's place," said Jake simply. "This letter goes with it too."

"What's in the crate?" asked John.

"Just some stuff she left behind that I think she might want before it probably gets destroyed in the crossfire," the scientist responded. "I wish you were staying with us though, this should be one hell of a fight."

"I would but I am the CEO of an international conglomerate, a position that I've worked hard to obtain," said John.

"Bullshit," said Jake knowing him better. "What's your real reason?"

"I got married," said John simply. Jake began uncontrollably coughing.

"What?" he asked incredulously before he tried to form another coherent strain of words and failed.

"It's true," said John simply as he held up his hand with a ring on it.

"No way," said Jake not believing it. John just shrugged.

"Who's the unlucky lady," Jake asked while laughing.

"You remember that woman you ran into around the turn of the decade in that camp in Costa Rica when you were searching for A1?" John asked.

"Yeah, Sarah something or other as I recall," said Jake not at all surprised that John knew about A1. "Why?"

"When she came to get a job at Pacific Pharmaceuticals she wrote you down as a reference. I of course knowing you was sent by corporate to conduct an interview with her and she briefly mentioned that you had talked about me. Well things clicked and after a three year long relationship we finally tied the knot just a couple weeks ago. We came to Costa Rica for our honeymoon this week and I was already planning a shipment to be sent to Sorna. I told her this morning that I had to do a quick errand for an old friend and I immediately flew out here," said John.

"No shit," said Jake at the abrupt turn in John's life. "Well I wish you the best. I just wish I had been there."

"I tried to get you off this island but Ingen was adamant about you staying here and again threatened me with a lawsuit. Sorry J," said John sadly.

"Don't worry about it," said Jake. "I'm through putting up with Ingen's stupid orders. We're going to defend this island by any means necessary. Later."

John nodded solemnly as Jake bounded down the steps and walked out to his car as the jet powered up. Jake walked down to his car and turned it on before taking up a position next to the jet as he revved his engine.

"What's going on sir?" asked the pilot. John strapped himself in and looked at the window with a grin.

"Just go," he said. The plane began picking up speed as the Interceptor tore off alongside it. The two continued racing down the runway neck and neck until the plane finally pulled away and lifted up into the air. John watched the shrinking car and sighed.

"What's up?" asked the pilot from the cockpit.

"I just got a funny feeling like I'm not going to see him again," said John distantly as the workers around him just looked at each other confused as they had no idea what was happening on that island or what was going to happen. The plane flew beyond the shore and once again Isla Sorna was swallowed up by the cloudy darkness.


	16. Understanding and Acceptance

Anguirus111 Note: I'm in all likelihood going to completely rewrite Chapter 6 of Jurassic Park: Demons of the Past in order to make Regis' report mesh better with this story. I wasn't exactly happy about that chapter to begin with and now it'll hopefully be better. Oh yeah, here's a tantalizing tidbit, if I ever get around to writing Jurassic Park: Demons Forever, the sequel to Demons of the Past it'd feature a massive battle between dinos and humans in their attempt to bring Sorna back under control.

Sorna, Morning: After spending the night sleeping in his car, Jake pulled the Interceptor rolled into the Operations Village as the semi-truck was finally being offloaded of all of its weaponry provided by Pacific Pharmaceuticals. As Jake pulled up next to the truck, he saw Ed Regis watching the weaponry being hauled into the Operations Building.

"My God," said Regis in shock as Jake approached. "What is going on here are you expecting some kind of war?"

"Yes," said Jake simply.

"Against who?" asked Regis.

"Them," explained Jake simply as he grabbed one of the final crates and walked into the building with it. He set it down amidst the others as Gerry and Sam sorted through them placing all the like weapons in a pile on a group of tables. Regis picked up an EMP rifle and looked at it shocked.

"I heard about this weapon on the news the other day," he said in shock. "It was developed by the military but was scrapped because it was deemed 'too dangerous' because it shot out pieces of metal at nearly the speed of light."

"Yeah, it's got a diffuser, its pro-grade dude," explained Stormy.

"How the hell did you get your hands on this?" demanded Regis. "You couldn't have picked this up at any gun shop!"

"I know some people, who know some people, who know people in the Black Market," Jake said, somewhat lying, John did know black marketers but the gun wasn't obtained that way.

"I don't believe this," said Regis with disgust as he dropped the gun on the table. Stormy meanwhile picked the gun up and aimed it out the open window and pulled the trigger, blowing a nearby tree into the air before it came crashing down. Jake whistled as he walked over to the window.

"Maybe we can try and take out the Spino with that," he said. "It is probably one of the most dangerous creatures on this island. Save for the Dimetrodon."

"I'm keeping this," said Stormy ending that line of thought as he cradled the weapon close to him and he took off before anyone could protest. Regis just shook his head incredulously as he took out his camera and began filming the crates and their contents.

"And you intend on using all this?" Regis asked.

"You got that right," said Gerry pulling out an M-16 and checking its barrel.

"To hunt dinosaurs," Regis reasoned.

"Not anymore," said Jake solemnly. "It's too late for that. Now our only option is to defend ourselves."

"From what?" asked Regis still not getting it.

"I already told you!" Jake shouted angrily. "Them!"

"The dinos?" asked Regis finally. Jake nodded his head.

"Yeah," he said coolly.

"I don't understand, I thought they're kept in their pens by the electrical fences," said Regis confused. Laughter erupted from the few workers in the room.

"What's so funny?" Regis demanded still not liking to be the brunt of all the jokes.

"You think those fences are going to stay powered forever?" asked Gerry incredulously. "If you did your research you'd realize that this island was never intended to hold dinosaurs for anything more than a few weeks. It's been a little over four months since Nublar collapsed and even then we'd had several dinosaurs here that had matured for weeks prior to that in the pens. But that power has been overtaxed too much with the continued loss of personnel and us being both unable to maintain most basic facilities while engaging in a desperate attempt to keep the fences powered up."

"But this place operates on geothermal power," Regis recalled. "It was never meant to need replenishing."

"Just because it doesn't need replenishing doesn't mean it can't be overtaxed," said Sam appearing as he dried his hands with a towel. "The power source will always be there but if we're consuming power faster than it can be produced then…"

"We're screwed," Jake completed as he leaned against one of the tables and crossed his arms. "Even more so when you consider what is on the other side of those fences."

"That is why we had to take steps to divert us much power as we could from fences that wouldn't need it anymore to fences that really do need it," Jake explained.

"And what gave you that right?" asked Regis.

"Project E.L.E.," Jake said simply. Regis dropped his camera.

"What is that?" he said. "I read about rumors circulating about an Ellie but it never said who or what that was."

"It's a last ditch effort to save ourselves when the lysine contingency is in danger of failing," said Gerry as he began sorting out the clips for the various weapons.

"I think this is for you," he said to Jake as he tossed him a box of revolver bullets. Jake grinned lightly as he pulled out his Long Colt and snapped open the barrel and loaded six bullets into the cylinder before spinning it and snapping the gun closed before holstering it.

"The lysine contingency is in danger of failing?" asked Regis worried. "Why wasn't I told about this?"

"Because The Company doesn't want it to be known," said Jake bitterly. "It's because if this island doesn't exist, if its personnel and assets do not exist, then how can Ingen support any such island? They can't, that's the point."

"Unbelievable," said Regis shaking his head as he picked up his camera again. "Isn't that illegal for the company to be doing that?"

"Again," said Jake. "We don't exist."

Regis' eyes went wide-open at that declaration.

"Damn," he said simply.

"There you go," Jake said apologetically. "But it's all good, we're going to die here anyway so it's not like it matters."

"How can you say that?" Regis accused. "When I get back I'll make sure that something is done around here."

"Even if you could it won't make any difference," said Gerry.

"Again-," Regis began protesting.

"The fences are going to fail in a week," Jake said ending his protest. "So in the end we're all going to be dead before any help gets out here."

"A week!" shouted Regis. "You've got to get out of here now!"

"We can't!" Gerry shot back. "If we do then A1 was only the beginning!"

Regis shut up at that, even he knew about A1, everyone who had been working at Ingen at that time did.

"Wait, but the Lysine Contingency," because Regis trying to understand what he was missing.

"Has failed," Jake completed. "Because the dinos can breed."

Regis' eyes somehow bugged out even wider than before as his jaw dropped.

"B-b-b-," he began to protest incoherently before collapsing on a nearby chair in shock.

"Imagine my reaction," said Jake sympathetically. "Course I didn't have much time to dwell on it given the already desperate circumstances."

"Proof?" asked Regis weakly.

"It's in my office," said Jake helping the HR man up and helped him walk to his office as Gerry followed. They entered and Regis dropped down on the couch as Jake walked over to his portable refrigerator.

"Where's Steviesaurus?" asked Gerry looking around for the baby protoceratops.

"She's around somewhere," Jake said as he opened the fridge to pull out a cooler. He then pulled out his desk drawer and handed Regis and Gerry a protective mask to cover their nose and mouth.

"I hope this doesn't smell," said Jake as he put on his own. "We can't exactly cryogenically freeze something this big and we don't have enough amber or time to pull the ol' mosquito trick."

Jake popped open the cooler and gently took out the baby Pteranodon and showed it to Regis who shakily picked up his camera and taped it.

"I've been too afraid to run lysine tests on it," Jake admitted a little bit scared. "But it stands to reason that since the lysine contingency was something that we artificially introduced that it wouldn't stick around through subsequent generations. And there you pretty much have it. The dinosaurs are about to go lysine mad, they can now breed lysine producing offspring, and the fences are going to fail in a week. Three very big strikes against us and we're completely out of time."

"I'm sorry I overreacted to the killing of the dinosaurs," Regis admitted. "I was wrong you have every right to be doing this."

"If only that was the only thing we're doing," said Jake to heavens. "C'mon I have something to show you."

"What?" Regis asked getting up. Jake looked at him solemnly.

"Something terrible," was all that the scientist answered with. He looked at Gerry who shrugged and then they left the room. They marched down to the black metal door.

"Beyond this door you will see things that will confuse and sicken you," said Jake. "But know that if we didn't do this now, it'd only have hurt us in the long run."

Jake pressed the release on the door and it shot open revealing the contents inside.

"Oh my God," said Regis yet again as he saw the horrific scene within. Inside were various dinos in states of decay as well as various body parts lying everywhere as the floor was covered in blood.

"What the hell is all this?" the HR man ranted.

"The second phase of E.L.E., discovering the dinos weak points to hit and hit hard," said Jake calmly.

"You have to go to this extreme just to find all of that out?" Regis shouted.

"No," Jake admitted. "No we didn't. But we had to."

"What?" said Regis confused.

"We had to do this because we had to get revenge," said Gerry darkly.

"Revenge for what?" asked Regis as he continued filming the room as the five scientists in the room stopped what they were doing and watched the conversation.

"For what they did to us," said one of the blood drenched scientists. "For making our lives a living hell."

"Nublar falling to the dinos, them coming after us every chance they get, the knowledge that this island too will fall to them, it's just too much," said Gerry. "I have to give credit to Jake though. Out of all of us he has the most reason to hate them yet has done the least in the killings."

"Yeah but you forget that I authorized all of this," said Jake pointing to the room. "The rest of you can claim you were following orders, I can't. I've gotten no orders from Ingen over the past four months save for recall notices. So I was left with no choice but to go it alone and hope for the best. Every decision I've made has been towards the survival of the personnel on this island and not the…assets."

"And why not?" asked Regis filming him. "Why aren't you operating with the dinos interests in mind as well?"

"Because we made them, we patented them, we own them," said Jake harshly. "A creature that exists because we made it exist is ours to do with as we see fit. And when it comes down to it, if it's their lives against ours, we have the priority here."

"This," Regis stammered. "This is all wrong. Why are you doing this? This is genocide!"

"Look, you haven't been here as long as I have! You haven't listened to their roars 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the past several years. This kind of stuff wears down on you until the point that you can't hold out any longer and you snap and I've lived too long and seen too much. I've seen friends and colleagues slaughtered by these things, I've seen them take away my job and everyone I've ever known and I have been powerless to do anything about it," said Jake beginning to tear up. "I'm reminded of something Colonel Kurtz once said when he remarked 'I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment because it's judgment that defeats us."

"And just like _Apocalypse Now_ you're repeating the mistakes that those characters made," Regis shot back. "Santyanna says that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it yet you seem to have taken the route of when he said that a fanatic is someone who redoubles his efforts while loosing sight of his goal."

"I make no excuses for what we've done here," said Jake shaking his head. "I myself am on the verge of mentally breaking apart over this. I have recurring hallucinations of being admonished by my friend Jeffrey, who died at their hands. He says that what I've done is unforgivable and he's right. I'll never be able to repent for the sins that I have committed on this island and that's a cross I have no choice but to bear for the rest of my life. But if it means that what I've done today will spare at least one life then it was all worth it."

"If you left the alone they might very well have left you alone after the fences fail," Regis protested.

"No," said Gerry shaking his head. "No they wouldn't."

"And why not?" asked Regis.

"Because they're dinosaurs, it's their nature," said Jake as he realized they were still in the room and exited with Gerry and Regis before he shut the door. "We made them that way it'd almost be criminal if they didn't."

"That's why we've been busy prepping this island for the coming battle," said Gerry. "The whole Workers Village is rigged to explode should we still be here and the dinos are beginning to force their way in and we've got multiple fallback points in an attempt to keep the island's interior as secure as possible."

"What other deterrents have you set up?" asked Regis wanting to know just what they had done to this island to report back to his superiors.

"We've used what explosives we have left to mine most of the roads leading out of here, mines that we'll activate once the fences fail and we've run out of places to fall back to. We've set up multiple escape points from the various buildings in the Village, and an escape route from the Village itself when we set it to blow and have several places to hopefully hide out until help finally arrives, bunkers protected by mobile sentry guns designed to take out anything that moves. Provided help comes at all," said Gerry bitterly.

"How long can you hold out once the fences go?" asked Regis filming a map on a nearby table indicating all the defensive positions on the island.

"We don't know," said Jake honestly. "We hope at least a few weeks but what really happens after those fences fail is anyone's guess."

"How many casualties are you expecting as a result of this plan…HSWS?" asked Regis reading the sheet. Gerry chuckled at the acronym as Jake stood there solemnly.

"I'll be honest, 100 casualties are to be expected. Whether that happens I don't know, but I'll do my damndest to see that not even 1 goes," he said determined. "But look, regardless of what you think about us, the shit is going to hit the fan in four days and we could really use your help here if you want to."

"Unbelievable," said Regis not sure how to take any of this. He'd just gotten over the workers hunting the dinosaurs before he had received two more bombshells that he wasn't sure how to deal with. Clearly what was going on here would be wrong under ordinary circumstances, but these were hardly ordinary circumstances and as he thought about it, Regis wasn't positive that he wouldn't be acting in the same manner as Jake. The scientist was right, he _hadn't_ been here and he hadn't seen things go from bad to worse here. He had seen how things had gone back home so here it's must've been much worse. So he just sighed again and lowered his camera.

"Four days huh?" asked Regis.

"That's right," Jake acknowledged as he leaned over the desk. Regis sighed again. He knew he had only option that he could take.

"So what can I do?" he asked finally, shutting off the videocamera.


	17. Preparing to flee

Anguirus111 Note: I offer my condolences to the victims of the London Terror Attacks that occurred today. If any of my readers are from Britain I just want to offer my sympathy. What happened to Ed Regis between the last chapter and this one will in all likelihood also be covered in the rewrite of Chapter 6 of Demons of the Past. I don't know when I'll rewrite it, but watch out for it at any rate.

Sorna: Regis wiped his brow as he finished writing down some measurements on a map while reading his mile counter on the jeep he had been given for surveying. Jake and Gerry had accepted his idea that while he didn't agree with what was going on here Regis ultimately was not in any position to pass sentence on them. That was for the board to decide and until Regis could get back to San Diego to give them his report, he couldn't stop them. Until then he figured he could make himself useful so Jake and Gerry had put him to work updating the map of Sorna. As he finished and put down his pencil, he picked up his camera again and videotaped a pair of jeeps roaring across a meadow chasing down a few almasaurs. A loud rumble was heard and Regis spun around to see a pair of semis roar by headed for the Operations Building.

"This is Ed Regis on Day Six of my 'tour of duty' here. As you can see, Project E.L.E. is still in effect however efforts from it have been mostly redirected into Project HSWS that I described a few days back. I myself have agreed to assist in the latter project as I do confess that the first project, forgive my lack of professionalism, scares the living hell out of me. I'm surprised Ingen agreed to green light the project's existence but it was a different time three years ago, we didn't know what was possible back then. I was asked to give my opinion on what should be done on this island should the rumors be true and all I can say is this, you have to get these people off this island. That's literally the only option left to us now because it's too late to do anything else now. Though Jake and Gerry will never admit this, it's obvious by now that we've lost this island too. When we lost it, I don't know, but I have a feeling it came back in 1989 when we made that first dino. A few weeks back you had me go to one of Ian Malcolm's seminars when he was discussing about the ethics of what we did on Nublar. Granted he wasn't supposed to be, but still his arguments about man attempting to control nature always ending in disaster were very convincing, especially in light of what's happened on Nublar and what's going to happen here. I don't know, maybe I'm just starting to experience the madness that all the others have felt on this island and are now lashing out against. I don't know, but I should be back soon…I hope. Ed Regis signing off, September 18, 1993," said Regis. He shut off the camera as a dinosaur roar echoed in the distance before looking up at the blinking red and blue lights high above him before sighing and began writing down more measurements.

Operations Building: Jake was hunched over asleep on his desk before Gerry came in looking extremely troubled. He poked Jake a couple times.

"Jake," Gerry pleaded.

"Gimme five more minutes," said Jake half-asleep.

"Jake," said Gerry summoning up his courage. "It's time."

Jake's eyes shot open and he just laid there with his head on the desk looking at the far wall before sitting up and slowly brushing himself off and filing some papers into his IN BOX and OUT BOX. He then got up with a sound and picked up a nearby shotgun and cocked it before swinging it to rest on his shoulder pointed backwards.

"It's early," said the scientist finally.

"It was only a prediction," Gerry admitted. "And I'm amazed it held out for this long."

"Have you called for the chopper?" Jake asked grabbing his duffel bag and throwing a couple candy bars into it amidst all the ammo and clips already in it. He then walked over to the wall of his office that featured all of his pictures of him with various people that he knew and some of the early dinosaurs Ingen had created. Certificates indicating his college degree as well as others featuring his many awards covered the rest, but none of this was Jake's concern. Embedded in the wall behind a Jurassic Park poster was a lockbox that he took out and opened revealing the Long Colt. He snapped the barrel open, examined the rounds inside before snapping it closed. He then removed the only other object in there, the locket Stephanie had given him before she left. He popped open the thing and looked at the photo of the two of them and Steviesaurus before closing it and hanging it around his neck.

"The chopper is on its way to the secondary landing site and the two winners of our little contest, Billy and Mandy, have their stuff in the Explorer awaiting your arrival. Everything's as ready as it's going to be. You'll command the outer forces and I'll do my best to manage things around here. Still doesn't seem fair though, you're going to go through hell just to protect those of us here," said Gerry.

"Don't worry about it. I'll see you in a few weeks Ger," said Jake exiting the room. "Just make sure you carefully conserve the power we've siphoned off for this place to keep the fence up and running for as long as possible. I hope we'll make it through this, I really do but above all else I will not see Isla Sorna transformed into The Lost World like Jurassic Park was. We own this island, not them."

With that Jake was gone leaving Gerry behind in silence as a cold breeze came in through the window as a pair of storm clouds appeared in the distance. Jake meanwhile just trudged out onto the streets as the rain began lightly pouring down. He made his way into the garage and stopped next to his V-8 Interceptor just sitting there in silence. Jake quietly rested his hand on the black metal of the hood next to the partially complete supercharger and sighed.

"Until next time," he said to the thing before shifting his bag and walking down the ramp to the lowest level of the garage. Down below past the rows of cadillacs was a square parking lot filled with twenty Ford Explorers each adorned with the red and green Jurassic Park color scheme on them, complete with sunroof and auto-navigation system. The vehicles were awaiting their time to finally be transferred to Isla Nublar, a time that would never come now. Jake just shook his head again and advanced to vehicle 008 where Billy and Mandy were waiting for him.

"Let's go you two," said Jake throwing his duffel bag into the back amidst another huge pile of ammo and weapons before shutting it and going around to the front and getting in.

"So where're we going?" asked Billy getting into the backseat with Mandy.

"First we have to pick up Ed Regis and then we have to get you to the landing zone," said Jake as he pressed some buttons on the LCD screen on the front dash and disengaged the auto-drive system. He then revved the engine and the car tore off up the ramp and out onto the street as the rain continued pouring down causing mud to appear. The vehicle raced past the open entrance before the workers hastily shut it and began bracing the door with whatever they had on hand. Jake adjusted the rearview mirror on the windshield and looked at the lighted Village, the last refuge of humanity in the midst of an encroaching jungle before he breathed in deeply and continued driving down the road.

And one by one the fences began failing, it started with the inner fences, mainly the herbivores, but slowly made its way outward, towards the carnivore fences.

15 Minutes Later: The rain was starting to come down where Regis was and he was just about to start up his jeep to head for shelter when he saw a pair of headlights in the distance. He sat and waited as the Jurassic Park tour vehicle came to an abrupt halt and Jake flung open the door and ran to his vehicle.

"Hey Jake, what's up?" asked Regis. "Nice car."

"We have to leave, now," said Jake grabbing stuff out of the back of his jeep and running it over to the Explorer.

"Why?" asked Regis snapping up his camera and filming him. "The storm isn't going to be that bad."

"It's not the storm I'm worried about," said Jake nervously laughing while shaking his head.

"What then?" Regis asked. Jake said nothing but pointed to the top of the fence. Regis panned the camera upwards until he noticed the now unblinking red and blue lights atop it.

"Oh shit!" he shouted as the ground began rhythmically shaking. Regis grabbed the rest of his stuff and transferred it to the other vehicle before leaping into the front side passenger seat as a massive two-legged beast with tiny arms as the beast roared angrily at the outside world. Regis panned in on the beast through the glass sunroof.

"My God it's a Rex!" he shouted as Billy and Mandy looked at it in shock.

"He'll destroy us all!" Billy shouted.

"I hope he doesn't realize the truth just yet or we're screwed," said Jake as the vehicle moved down the road. The Rex tilted its head up and looked at the lights on the fence and noticed that they were no longer blinking before it reared back its head, roared, and charged it. The creature ripped right through the fence with its teeth and kicked the motionless jeep nearby causing it to tumble over and over and into the jungle beyond where it hit a tree and exploded causing fire to briefly soar skyward before being doused by the pouring rain. The Rex then noticed the Explorer fleeing in the distance and chased after it.

"Holy crap!" said Regis as he zoomed on the Tyrannosaurus Rex behind them before changing the angle to see the lights on all the fences fail around them.

"What's behind those fences?" asked Regis as the car briefly went airborne before landing again and racing down a muddy hill as it slipped and swerved on the road. The T-Rex appeared at the top of the hill and roared out a challenge at the large valley below it as a lightning bolt flashed past it followed by thunder as it too started down the hill only to slip and come tumbling down the mountain after the Explorer.

"See that'd be funny if the situation wasn't so serious," said Billy looking behind them at the Rex.

"Shut up Billy!" Mandy said as the vehicle reached the bottom of the hill but just spun its wheels in the mud as it couldn't gain traction.

"C'mon, c'mon!" shouted Jake at the vehicle. The vehicle continued spinning until the Rex crashed into the back of it causing the vehicle to surge forward and catch on the ground as it took off. The Rex meanwhile shook off the cobwebs and stood up and continued the pursuit despite the occasional stumble.

"This is Jake Whitacre heading North down Service Road J-99 in Sector A-10 and I've got a bogey on my tail are there any units nearby?" asked Jake into the radio on the dash as the channel rippled with static.

"Yeah this is Unit 12, we're holed up just a few miles down the road from you," said a voice as the radio finally crackled to life. "What sort of bogey are we dealing with here?"

"A Rex," said Jake simply. "Have you got the firepower to take it down? If not make a break for it, we'll just manage on our own."

"That's a negative," said the response. "We have the firepower, just keep heading our way and we'll take it down."

"Roger that," said Jake as the car power slid around a bend in the road barely avoiding the Rex's snapping teeth as it crashed into another fence before quickly freeing itself and continuing pursuit. Jake just slammed down on the accelerator as the vehicle continuing moving down the rainy road as more lightning flashed by overhead.

"Just a regular day in the grim adventures of Billy and Mandy," Billy snorted as Mandy smacked him in the back of the head.

"I said shut up!" she said.

"That hurt Mandy!" Billy complained as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Quiet you two I'm trying to concentrate," said Jake as he looked in the rearview mirror on the side that read _Objects May Seem Closer Then They Appear_ as the Rex was seen roaring at them. Then in the distance a pair of headlights was seen as a pair of Hummers were seen on both sides of the roadway facing inwards behind which were a few workers aiming their assault rifles at the T-Rex charging towards them.

"Thanks," said Jake over the radio as they roared past them. "Light him up!"

The T-Rex skidded to a halt and looked at the vehicles and people confused as more lightning flashed by overhead.

"Fire!" shouted a team member. Muzzle flash erupted as the team began pouring round and after round into the beast who wailed in agony before a pair of rocket-propelled grenades streamed straight towards it.

Car: An explosion was seen in the background as Regis filmed what he could despite the increasing distance and increased rainfall.

"Bogey eliminated," said the radio.

"Good work, score one for the home team," said Jake into the radio. "If it's not too much to ask, could you also provide us with an escort to the helipad?"

"No problem," said the radio. "We'll be there in just a sec."

"Thanks," said Jake putting the radio down.

"Well that was a close one," said Billy sighing.

"You know it was only doing what it knew, hunt down prey," Regis remarked as he settled back into the front seat.

"As much as I would have liked to let you satisfy his urges by allowing you to be eaten, you're too important right now," Jake responded. "73 lives will hang in the balance after you leave; lives that you can either save or destroy. But it's your choice and I won't let something intervene in the meantime to prevent that choice from being made."

Regis was about to respond but found that he couldn't and just remained silent as the radio crackled to life again.

"This is Unit 12, Explorer 008 get ready for that escort," said a voice over the radio. The pair of hummers appeared behind them and took up an escort position with one in front and one behind.

"Look at it this way," said Jake with a chuckle. "At least we're working together again in order to survive; before we were just arguing with each other."

In the backseat Billy and Mandy were engaging in fisticuffs.

"You will not insult my husband!" Mandy said angrily as she held back Billy's wrists as both tried to get at each other.

"I can't believe you married that bag of bones!" Billy pouted. "He's scary!"

"You've known him as long as I have," Mandy commented.

"It's creepy!" Billy complained. "You're creepy!"

"Save for those two," Jake commented wryly.

"What's the deal with them?" Regis asked as the two in the back began hitting and punching each other.

"They're childhood…acquaintances I guess is the best word," said Jake choosing that word carefully. "They come from Endsville and both are a little on the nutso side as both are interested in genetics for different reasons. Billy just thinks it looks cool, Mandy seems to have darker aspirations, but both drive each other nuts before they can really accomplish anything worthwhile. I dunno, I just let those two go their own path and don't interfere."

"Mandy, you have to believe me! The clowns not the dinosaurs want to take over and become the dominant species! They will DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL! DESTROY US ALL!" shouted Billy hysterical as he referred to the dinosaurs while Mandy kept punching him. Jake just groaned and held his head.

"I'll be honest," said Jake as Regis picked up his camera and began filming again. "After all my earlier concerns about trying to avoid rigging the contest, I rigged it anyway to get those two off the island."  
"Why?" asked Regis with a mild grin.

"They drive me nuts!" Jake exclaimed as the helipad appeared in the distance, an island of light amongst the harshness of the storm. "More so than any dinosaur ever could."

"Aha," Regis said triumphantly. "So you do hate something more than them!"

"Hate?" asked Jake. "No, I'll always hate them more. Loath on the other hand is still up in the air."

Before Regis could ask more the three vehicles pulled up and around the helipad with Unit 12 getting out of their vehicles.

"Stay here," Jake said as he grabbed a poncho and exited the vehicle. He walked out into the pouring rain as he met with the team leader.

"Orders?" the team leader said.

"Set up a defensive position around the pad and see if you can't get the motion sensors online," Jake shouted over the storm. "Then have somebody check the radar to verify if that chopper is still coming. But above all else we have to make sure that beacon stays powered up because if it fails that chopper isn't going to try and chance landing blind."

"Right, I suspected as much," said the team leader who made a circle motion with his hand to his team who spread out. Jake meanwhile pulled out his Long Colt and went to the back of the Explorer where he began rummaging through the weapons inside.

"What's going on?" asked Regis a little afraid.

"Just relax and stay inside of this vehicle. These lights are probably going to attract some unwanted attention that'll have to be dealt with."

"Why not turn them off?" Billy asked before Mandy smacked him.

"Idiot, if they do that how will the helicopter know where to land?" she demanded.

"Magic!" shouted Billy. Mandy groaned and held her head as she felt a headache coming on. Regis looked at Jake helplessly who just shrugged and closed the back after grabbing a pair of Uzis that he promptly holstered underneath his coat. He then walked out onto the rain soaked landing pad where Unit 12 was spread out all around it as the lights shown down from some of the light poles around the place.

"Anything?" asked Jake to the leader.

"Well the radar still indicates the chopper is on its way, ETA fifteen minutes," said the leader. "I can't imagine it is good flying weather though."

"And the motion sensors?" asked Jake. The leader shuddered.

"With all this wind and rain they're worthless," he said. "It's picking up anything and everything."

"Damn," said Jake starting to shiver from the weather. "The chopper noise is probably going to attract some unwanted attention but now we won't know from where."

"You should get inside one of the vehicles," the leader observed.

"No," said Jake adamantly. "I'm staying here. I'm in this just as much as you are."

"You're also no good to us if you get sick," the leader pointed out. "And we need you more than you need us."

"That's bullshit and you know that," said Jake. "But I suppose I will heed your advice. I'll stop by the Radar Room and then get back into the jeep. But if trouble comes, then it's all guns blazing. Just make sure your men stay away from the jungle and stay on the pad, anything with trees is a deathtrap."

"Right," said the leader giving him a clap on the back as Jake left to a small building just off of the pad. He entered into it and closed the door as a single member of Unit 12 was sitting in front of the radar display in the primarily darkened room.

"Sir," said the worker. Jake nodded and sat down.

"So what're we looking at?" Jake asked.

"Well we' here, and the chopper is here," said the worker pointing to a pair of blips on the radar screen.

"I'm surprised it's still coming," Jake admitted. "Course only one pilot I know would be stubborn enough to brave this kind of storm."

"Yeah, Kev," the worker snorted. "Still, even he won't land without a transponder."

"Speaking of which," Jake began.

"She's in one piece for now," said the worker leaning back in his chair. "Don't know how much longer the power will hold out though."

"Could we rig the Explorer up to the thing and power it that way?" asked Jake.

"I suppose," the worker mused. "I don't suppose you have jumper cables in that thing."

"I think so," said Jake. "I vaguely recall Hammond once mentioning that if the battery ever died on the thing while on Nublar all you'd have to do would be to plug the cables into the track on the roadway and attach it to the battery and it'd instantly jump. I dunno we'll see. Just make sure that chopper is still on its way."

"Right," said the worker turning back to his station as Jake got up and exited the shed and back out into the rainy sky. He walked back over to the jeep and got in all wet.

"Stinky," said Billy holding his noise before trembling as Mandy threatened to punch him again.

"Is the chopper still on its way?" asked Regis.

"Yeah, it'll be here in about ten minutes," said Jake. "So just sit tight and everything _should_ be fine."

"I'm scared!" exclaimed Billy. "The walls are closing in! I can't breathe!"

Mandy groaned again as Jake sighed and swung his Long Colt around so it was aimed at him.

"You should be more scared of me," he said darkly. Billy gasped but ultimately remained silent.

"Thank you," said Jake amicably as he settled back into his seat.

"How irresponsible," commented Regis while filming. Jake laughed and swung the gun to the camera where Regis flinched as Jake pulled back on the trigger.

CLICK.

Regis groaned as Jake popped open the barrel on the Long Colt and put back in the missing round he'd taken out before getting in the vehicle and snapped the gun closed and put it on the dashboard. He then took out the bottle of water underneath the seat and popped open the door where he filled it up from the rainwater before taking a swig.

"Anybody else want some?" he asked. The others looked too disgusted to try it.

"Suit yourself," responded the scientist drinking some more water. He then poured the water into the two plastic cups on the dash and proceeded to stare distantly out the window.

Time passed…

Jake was twirling a pen in his hand when suddenly a thump was heard and his Long Colt rattled against the dash.

"Billy," Jake warned.

"It wasn't me," Billy protested.

"Mandy?" Jake asked for confirmation.

"He's been sitting still this whole time," Mandy responded. Another thump and this time both the gun rattled and ripples formed in the two cups of water.

"Oh crap," said Jake grabbing his Long Colt.

"What?" demanded Regis.

"You'd better grab a weapon," said Jake simply as the ground continued shaking while Unit Twelve ran to the side of the helipad and aimed their weapons to a thick grove of trees while more rain and lightning poured down. Jake shut off the lights on the vehicle as the pounding suddenly stopped and silence descended on the area filled with only the rain. Everyone looked around nervously wondering where the attack would come from. The leader of Unit 12 looked at Jake who held up his two closed fists and then opened them quickly. The leader looked at him confused before Jake pointed to the hood. The Leader looked down to see the lights on the front of the vehicle before nodding and whispering orders to his squad who all prepared to shut their eyes. Jake then flipped on the lights before switching straight over to the high-beams. The lights flashed out into the jungle and suddenly a roar was heard as the trees split apart and a trio of Hadrosaurs appeared, dazed and confused from the bright lights.

"Hah!" said Jake triumphantly. "Mess with the best die like the…"

Abruptly the lights surrounding the helipad died leaving only the lights shining from the Explorer. The three hadrosaurs looked at the vehicle angrily and roared fiercely at it.

"Oh shit," said Jake looking behind him at the darkened helipad. He immediately grabbed the stick and threw it in reverse and hit the accelerator as the hadrosaurs charged.


	18. The War has Begun

Anguirus111 Note: Jake of course has two offices, one at Embryonics Administration and the other at the Operations Building. Originally all the scenes in the Ops building where supposed to take place the Administration Building, but that didn't make sense considering the village is where everything is controlled from. Embryonics Administration is the genetics building in Jurassic Park III and you can see its name when the raptor escapes it. It's also the building that shows up a couple chapters in Demons of the Past that Jake blows a large chunk out of, in order to wipe out the remaining evidence of Project ELE. Whether or not Project ELE takes place here I don't yet but we'll see.

San Jose Costa Rica: Kevin Steele was sitting alone in the empty lounge of Ingen's local office. He was silently drinking some old coffee while reading a newspaper from back in the states. It was then that he gagged on his coffee when some hardened chunks slipped through into his mouth which he quickly spewed back into the cup.

"Ugh," he said disgusted before chucking the thing into the nearby waste can before folding his paper and looking outside at the pouring rain. He was just about to fold up his paper and head for his apartment when a new person entered into the room. Kevin grimaced as his new copilot, a rookie named Scott Thomas walked up to him. Why Ingen had bothered to hire a skittish pilot was beyond him.

"_Apparently we're willing to take anyone cheap with our current budget crunch_," he thought.

"What's up?" he asked cordially as Scott got nearer.

"Not much," Scott said before he mumbled. "We got the recall notice from Sorna to evacuate Ed Regis off of the island."

"Let's go," said Kevin springing up as he grabbed his sunglasses and headed for the glass doors to the helipad.

"Wait!" said Scott running after him. "We can't fly in this kind of weather! Right now Tropical Storm Bert is pounding Los Cinco Muertos!"

"Maybe you can't," said Kevin putting on his pilot's jacket. "But I sure as hell can."

"Why can we just go in the morning," Scott protested.

"No," said Kevin shaking his head. "We can't."

"It's just a storm," said Scott incredulously. "They survived Tropical Storm Alice a month or two back, they'll be able to survive this."

"If that was all that I was worried about we wouldn't be going," said Kevin walking straight out into the wind and rain towards his helicopter.

"So why then?" said Scott as both got into the helicopter as Kevin began powering it up and running through the pre-flight checklist. He finished, threw the clipboard in the back and hit the rotor controls and an instant later the helicopter took off into the sky headed for Sorna.

"Why are we going?" asked Scott again, a little frightened by the weather as it rocked the helicopter.

"I hope you never have to find out," Kevin admitted. Although he hadn't been to Sorna in nearly five months, he knew about all the recalls and that between two tropical storms and the complete lack of energy cycling, the power had to be on the verge of failing by now. No doubt that was why the recall notice had been issued despite the oncoming storm.

"_Either that or the power is so far gone they didn't even know about Bert_," thought Kevin with sobering realization.

"But-," began Scott.

"Just be quiet," said Kevin holding up his hand to deflect any further questioning. "I need to concentrate on my flying otherwise we'll crash."

"Fine," Scott huffed as he cross his arms as the helicopter continued onward into the storm.

Time passed…

"Finally," said Kevin as Sorna finally appeared out of the storm. The helicopter blazed over the shoreline and headed inwards over the jungle.

"What exactly is Ingen doing out here anyway?" asked Scott, having never been told the truth yet if ever.

"Research and experimentation," said Kevin simply. The helicopter continued flying over the jungle. Eventually they flew over a roadway with a pair of large fences on both sides of it.

"To hold in the trees I surmise," Scott laughed nervously. It was then that Kevin noticed a large hole in one of them.

"Shit," he said holding his head.

"What?" Scott demanded. Kevin pressed some buttons on the console killing the external lights.

"Hey! How're they supposed to see us now?" asked Scott.

"It's not them I don't want spotting us," said Kevin a little nervous as he rose the helicopter up a little bit higher above the treetops as it continued towards the helipad. Scott wanted to press further but realized it was probably pointless.

"How much fuel would we have if we were forced to hover rather than land right away?" Kevin asked as he continued piloting towards a mass of lights in the distance.

"Are we assuming no refuel?" asked Scott as he began looking at the fuel gauge and jotting down some calculations.

"Yeah," said Kevin. "I think we'll have to do a Touch and Go type landing on this one, but we might not be able to touch down right away."

Kevin nodded and did some calculation in silence.

"Ten minutes tops," he said tossing his clipboard onto the dash. "And that means we have to land, pick them up, and then immediately take off, and not spend any time going nowhere or else we won't make it back."

"Shit," said Kevin desperate. "But I guess we have no choice then. We either make it this round or we have to go back."

"We can't just land and spend the night?" Scott suggested.

"If we land and shut down the rotors then we _won't_ be leaving," Kevin responded. "Not tomorrow, not ever."

"Will you just tell me the truth!" demanded Scotte exasperated. The helicopter got close enough to the helipad to make out figures when suddenly its lights cut out. Kevin reluctantly turned the helicopter's external lights back on and what was made visible shocked them both.

"Oh My God!" said Scott in shock.

Ground: The Explorer's wheels spun in the mud as the vehicle could not find purchase as the hadrosaurs came right at them.

"What now?" Regis demanded.

"Bail!" shouted Jake. He opened his door and leapt out as the others did the same just moments before the hadrosaur crashed into it, flipping the vehicle backwards and onto its roof. The hadrosaur roared angrily and prepared to stomp on the former inhabitants of the vehicle when Jake aimed his Long Colt at it's head and fired blasting a large chunk of its head off before he got up to help the others.

"Get into the shed right now!" he shouted. "Or else you might get caught in the crossfire!"

The others nodded and ran off as more gunfire was heard as more hadrosaurs began crashing through the trees towards the pad. Jake continued to fire at them and it was only after a bright light washed over them that he noticed the helicopter hanging above them.

"Oh hell," said Jake as he noticed it and the fact that the worker in the shed.

"Transmitter?" asked Jake.

"Transmitter," the worker responded.

"Great. Do you know morse code?" asked Jake.

"Yeah," responded the worker.

"Get to the light on top of one of the hummer's and signal them as to how long they can stick around," said Jake as he pointed to the helicopter. The worker nodded and ran off as more roaring was heard and hadrosaurs began dropping left and right. Jake ran over to the leader of Unit 12.

"We have to get these things as far away from the helipad as possible," Jake shouted over the wind, rain, and muzzle fire.

"It's not going to be easy," said the leader as he popped off another shot at yet another hadrosaur as his gun went dry. "We're out of ammo and they're coming out of the damn woodworks!"

"We need a distraction," Jake advised as he fired off another round from his Long Colt before opening the barrel and putting in another six rounds before he ran back to the overturned Explorer. Jake ducked inside and looked around desperately for something he could use. In the back he noticed an overturned large plastic box in the back that had spilled its contents all over the trunk. Jake crawled into the back as more gunfire erupted outside along with more braying but the scientist ignored it and continued on. He finally reached the bag and was rummaging through the mess when the worker he had sent to get in touch with the helicopter appeared on the other side.

"Seven minutes," said the worker. Jake was about to respond when he came up with a flare.

"Yes!" he shouted triumphantly.

"Sir?" asked the worker confused. Jake meanwhile had opened the back hatch of the vehicle and emerged back into the rain.

"Do you have a pen or any other sharp object on you?" Jake asked as he walked back to the front of the vehicle and grabbed his water bottle and quickly poured out its contents onto the ground.

"I found a screwdriver in the shed," said the worker taking it out as another tree fell over and yet another hadrosaur emerged only to have its head blown off by a large projectile as one of the members of Unit 12 had set up a Cobra Assault Cannon on the roof of one of the Hummers.

"It must be freaking stampede," said the worker next to Jake as he looked at the various bodies littering the area, but Unit 12 was still being pushed back towards the helipad.

"They're out for blood," said Jake grimly as he climbed onto the top of the vehicle. "So why aren't you with them?"

"I'm not one for weapons," said the worker shuddering.

"Good for you," said Jake as he walked along the undercarriage looking for the gas tank.

"What're you doing?" asked the worker.

"Making myself a cocktail," said Jake simply as he hunched down.

"Now?" asked the worker. "I mean I know this is a lot to bear but…"

"Ha," said Jake as he cracked a smile while a lightning bolt flashed by overhead. "I was thinking more along the lines of a Molotov cocktail."

"Oh," said the worker. "So what can I do?"

Jake grabbed the screwdriver and slammed it into the gas tank before yanking it out.

"In the back I noticed a bunch of jumper cables. I need you to attach those to the battery on the Explorer and then run them over to the transponder to kick it back on so the chopper can land," said Jake.

"Right," said the worker getting ready to run off.

"Thanks," said Jake. "I'm Jake Whitacre by the way. I don't know if that was ever made clear or not. I run this island…I think."

"Carly Carlson," said the worker holding out her hand despite the situation.

"I don't think you want to be touching my hand," said Jake looking at it. "It's covered in dirt, grass, gas, gunpowder, water, and who knows what else."

"All the same," said Carly. "It's nice to finally have a boss who actually gives a damn about his fellow employees even in the most trying of circumstances."

"You forget that my bosses are like that," said Jake shaking her hand. "But that's hardly our concern now: cables, transponder, go."

"Right," said Carly pulling down on her Ingen hat and running off to the back as Jake looked at the hole he'd made in the gas tank with the screwdriver. He quickly made several more punctures before yanking out a portion of the metal revealing the gas underneath. The scientist quickly took out a sponge he'd also found in the back and began soaking up the gas and wringing it into his bottle. After a couple more squeezes, he hopped off of the vehicle and headed for the onslaught as Carly began hooking jumper cables together as she slowly made her way towards the transponder in the middle of the helipad. As Jake continued walking, he looked up at the bright light of the helicopter and made a spinning motion with his left hand and got an acknowledgement from Kevin Steele who slowly angled the chopper into a position directly above the helipad.

"What've you got?" asked the leader as Jake approached. "Because we're running out of ammo."

"Just a little something to kick this part into high gear," said Jake as he tore off part of the sleeve on his shirt and stuffed it into opening to the bottle.

"Got a light?" Jake asked holding up the bottle with rag dangling from it.

"Good ol' Jurassic Park zippo," said the leader taking out the lighter with the Jurassic Park logo emblazoned on the side. He flicked it on and waved it over the rag that caught on fire.

"Get ready for some fireworks," said Jake as he tossed the canteen at the exact same moment Carly attached the jumper cables to the transponder causing it to surge on. As the helicopter came in to land, a large explosion tore up the jungle beyond it as the whole area went up in a gigantic fireball. Several hadrosaurs were heard wailing but no more emerged from the jungle.

"Go get the passengers," said Jake to Carly as he ran past her to the helicopter as it touched down amidst the blazing inferno.

"Hey Kev," said Jake as Kevin Steele popped open his door into the howling wind and rain.

"Howdy," said Kevin as he pressed some buttons on the console. "Nice trick you pulled off there."

"Sometimes spur of the moment decisions _do_ work," said Jake. He looked past Kevin to see Scott slumped unconscious against the side door. Jake furled his eyebrows as Kevin laughed nervously.

"He…ummm…couldn't handle the strain of seeing living dinosaurs and fainted," said Kevin.

"I'll bet," said Jake shaking his head. "Although from the looks of it I'd say someone knocked him unconscious."

"Now where you get that idea?" said Kevin with mock indignation.

"The bruise on your right knuckles maybe," said Jake humbly. "But I'm probably just seeing things."

"Although I suppose if a similar injury appeared on my left hand then it wouldn't appear out of the ordinary now would it?" Kevin lightly warned. Jake laughed really hard at that.

"Good one," he said as Carly herded the passengers and their belongings into the back of the chopper.

"Goodbye Jake," said Regis as he passed by. "I swear I'll make all of this right again by any means necessary."

"Yeah, listen, Jake. Good luck, I hope you make it through this," said Kevin seriously.

"I do too," said Jake. "But all the same I'll keep watching the friendly skies so that one day we'll be in the pipe…"

"Five by five," completed Kevin as both shook hands and Jake shut the door as the helicopter's blades sped up and the chopper slowly lifted off into the air and took off into the distance. Jake stood there in the howling rain watching the lights of the chopper slowly recede into the distance over the rising wall of flame and smoke from the jungle.

"Let's go," said the leader to Jake who nodded and turned his back to the flames and walked with the team back to the Hummers. They got in and the two started up and headed off into the burning jungle.

"We're headed towards Embryonic Administration Building right?" Jake asked.

"Yeah that's right," said the leader as the hummer roared over a small fallen tree that was on fire.

"Cool," said Jake as he leaned back in his chair. "I was hoping there wouldn't be any immediate trouble after the fences failed, but this has been a very promising trial run."

"Yeah but that'll probably change when the raptors get loose," the leader snorted.

"Still," Carly reminded them. "Take each victory where you can."

"True dat," said Jake as the vehicles approached the Embryonic Administration Building. The vehicles halted outside and the team ran inside as the rain pelted them. They emerged into the lobby where a pair of workers was guarding the entrance. They nodded as the team moved onwards past the receptionist desk and Jake sighed as he looked at the empty chair beyond it before moving on into the main area where various workers were trying to get some rest amidst all the maturation chambers.

"Get some sleep," said Jake to Unit 12. "I'll be in my office."

The others nodded and tried to find a place to lie down amidst the various bodies littering the floor. Jake tore up the steps and entered into his office and shut the door as he sat down behind his desk. He opened the safe behind him and shoved the Uzis he was carrying into it and slammed it shut before spinning the lock.

"Heaven forbid I ever have to explain what those are doing in there," said Jake with a chuckle. He flipped his computer on and looked at the papers in his inbox and outbox that he hadn't touched in four months. Sighing he reached into his duffle bag and picked up a radio and flipped it on.

"Sam?" he asked into it.

"Yeah," said the other end. "What's up Jake?"

"Where are you holed up at?" Jake asked as he pulled out a map and laid it on his desk.

"South of the Workers Village holed up in the Hammond Research Center," came the response. "You're north of the village at Embryonics Administration right?"

"Yeah," said Jake yawning. "On a positive note we did get our passengers out of here."

"Thank God," said Sam with a sigh of relief. "Any problems though?"

"Well if you count one tyrannosaurus rex and multiples hadrosaurs then yes," said Jake.

"Ouch," said Sam cringing. "Any casualties?"

"Thankfully no," said Jake. "Although I think the hadrosaur may have become extinct again."

"Not exactly, after all you still have the embryos in storage in your building. There is a reason why that building is called Embryonics Administration last time I checked," said Sam.

"Yeah you're right about that," Jake responded. "On the other hand it feels like I haven't been here in years."

"I know the feeling," said Sam. "Listen we both need to get some sleep, who knows the next time we'll get any more."

"Right," Jake acknowledged. "Good luck."

"You too," said Sam and the line went dead. Jake looked at the far wall of his office and then looked down at the couch on the other end. He walked over to it and briefly sat down on it before getting up and leaving his office. He walked down the steps to the large area where the various workers were still trying to get some sleep. They all looked at him with some measure of fear and trepidation.

"Get some sleep," said Jake laying down his sleeping bag and crawling into it. "Tomorrow's a busy day."

With that he closed his eyes and instantly dozed off as the others looked at each nervously and also went to sleep.

All around Sorna all the fences failed and all of the dinosaurs escaped only to flee into the jungle stark raving mad from lysine madness. But despite their minds be clouded, the desire for revenge against the two legged creatures that had attacked them unprovoked remained. The dinosaurs would exact vengeance!

Costa Rica: John Brown sat in his hotel room as he looked out at the storm hovering over the ocean with various lightning bolts streaking down. He just shook his head until he sighed with relief as a single Ingen Helicopter appeared from over the ocean and landed nearby. At that moment his cellphone rang and he left the room so as not to disturb his sleeping bride.

"Yeah what's up?" John asked into it.

"Hey it's me," said Ed Regis.

"How was it?" asked John.

"Terrible. The island's gone to hell just like you thought it would. They've been hunting the dinosaurs to try and thin the herds for when the fences finally failed, but they started too late," said Regis. "The fences failed just as I was leaving. I barely made it out alive as dozens of dinosaurs stormed the helipad trying to get at us. In the end we made it out, but I don't know how long those workers are going to last out there."

"Yeah Tropical Storm Bert really gave that island a pounding it seems," responded John. "Heaven forbid another storm or even worse a hurricane hits that island. Nothing man-made would survive and those workers would probably all be killed instantly afterwards."

"I hear that," said Regis. "So what do you need me to do before I head back for San Diego?"

"Make a copy of whatever video footage you have on that island and forward it to my office here in Costa Rica," said John. "Then make sure you prevent a very convincing argument to get those people off of that island."

"Right," said Regis. "Later."

"Yeah, later," said John as he clicked off his phone. He sat there in the hallway deep in thought as a man approached completely drenched.

"Howdy," said the man as he took out a key and prepared to enter into his room.

"Quite a storm, huh?" asked John jovially.

"Yeah," said other man with a grin. "Although I heard a new storm is brewing, one that might very well be more fierce than Bert."

"How powerful do you think?" asked John in shock.

"Well I heard it could possibly be a Category 5," said the man. "They're quite an Earth-shaker, being capable of at least 155 mile per hour winds and at least 18 feet in length. But don't worry, it won't come here it'll probably just follow this one."

"Thank goodness," John lied. "Did they say what name it might be?"

"Yeah," the man acknowledged. "They're thinking of calling it…Clarissa."


	19. Stranded

Sorna, two weeks later, 5 and a half months since the fall of Nublar: The trees shook as a Parasaurolophus emerged from beyond them only for seconds later to have a projectile streak by right at it and explode tearing off a large chunk of its body, spraying blood and guts everywhere.

"Got 'em," said one of the workers as he lowered his RPG launcher from beyond a black hummer that had been right in front of it.

"Excellent," said Jake as he looked at the still raining body parts. He made a mark on his clipboard before the two got back in the vehicle and headed down the road.

"This is Jake, that's one more taken care of," the scientist said into the radio.

"Check," came the response back from Embryonics Administration.

"Where to next?" asked Carly in the driver's seat. Jake was about to respond when suddenly the radio crackled to life.

"This is Unit 17 and we're pinned down at the intersection of Roads 8 and 19 in Quadrant C-4. We're under attack by Ankylosaurus's and they've managed to make both vehicles be immobilized!" shouted a voice as dinosaur roars were heard and gunfire was heard. Jake quickly consulted the map.

"This is Jake Whitacre I'm a couple miles away from you and are responded to your distress call," he said into it. "Although we're only one vehicle strong, is anybody else nearby?"

"Yeah this is Unit 6. We're about 10 miles away and will respond once we finish off a pair of Allosaurs we've discovered trekking inwards," said another voice over the radio.

"Check," said Jake. He then shut off the radio and took out his Project ELE packet.

"Let's see here, ankylosaurs," he said flipping through it. "Ah here we go, shoot for the legs because once it's immobile it's no longer a threat. Just watch out for the club on its tail is all."

"You're not going to finish them off?" asked Carly confused.

"Those dinosaurs have bone armor equivalent to that of a tank, conventional weaponry can't bring it down otherwise," said Jake. "Its legs are the only vulnerable part on it."

"Oh," said Carly. "Cool."

The vehicle rounded a bend in the road and suddenly plowed into an obstruction in the middle of the road.

"It's a good thing we're in a hummer or the whole front end probably would've been crumpled," said Carly composing herself after being rattled by the crash.

"Back us off now," said Jake harshly.

"Why?" asked Carly before she realized what they had hit. "Oh."

She threw the stick into reverse as the anyklosaurus that they'd smashed into roared at them angry. The vehicle leapt backwards as the tail swung around and bashed in the driver's side door.

"Now you see why we should avoid the tail," said Jake looking to his side at the heavily dented door that was now pressing up against his legs. The vehicle rolled back a couple feet and stopped while nearby they could see Unit 17 firing at the various ankylosaurus while taking cover behind their two badly damaged trailblazers.

"Let's roll," said Jake yanking out his Long Colt. The two workers in the back seat nodded.

"What about me?" Carly asked.

"Run interference," said Jake simply. He tried to open his door but it wouldn't budge so he shot out the front window and crawled out onto the hood and hopped onto the ground. The other two workers followed suit and exited the vehicle armed with M16s. The nearby Ankylosaurus roared at them and began charging. The three workers calmly swung up their weapons and began firing at the creature. It got only a couple feet towards them before its kneecaps were blown out from under it and it collapsed. Even immobile, the creature still roared at them with bloodshot eyes.

"That's lysine madness for you," said Jake as the trio walked past the dinosaur that did it's best to swing its tail at them even though they were out of range. The trio advanced towards the other dinosaurs as they opened fire on them. Several fell but still more poured out of the woodworks as trees fell left and right thanks to the ankylosaurus' ability to go through anything unfazed. The trio managed to make a hole in the dinos ranks as they made their way to Unit 17.

"Come on," said Jake the workers cowering behind the two damaged vehicles. "Let's go."

The five workers reluctantly abandoned their posts and nervously walked towards the Jake and the two others who stood point as no more ankylosaurus appeared, but those that were immobile on the ground continued growling even as their mouths began to foam over.

"Looks like that just about does it for them," said Jake triumphantly.

"Not quite," said one of the workers pointing down the road.

"Shit," said Jake angrily. "Alright you guys start heading to the next checkpoint. I'll go get Carly and meet up with you guys."

Two ankylosaurus were bashing their tails against the hummer that Carly was in. Jake snapped in a fresh six bullets into his Long Colt before running towards the hummer in the distance. The others reluctantly nodded and left; those that could walk fine supporting those that had been injured in the ankylosaurus assault. Jake meanwhile began firing off a couple rounds at the two ankylosaurus causing the two of them to growl at him and angrily and walk towards him.

"C'mon let's go," shouted Jake to Carly. She tried to start the Hummer but it refused to turn over. She sighed reluctant to get out of the vehicle.

"I can't hold them off forever," said Jake. He aimed at the dinos feet, but before he could fire, the dinos immediately dropped down covering their legs. Jake looked at them wide-eyed as he lifted up his Long Colt and the two dinosaurs got back up and continued onwards towards him. Jake swung back the gun back at them and again they squatted down.

"Oh great," said Jake realizing the battle was over. During the first few days or so, the information provided by ELE had worked wonders in being able to bring down the stray dinosaurs that the various Units encountered around the island. But soon things changed, the dinosaurs began recognizing their tactics and began working to overcome them. Soon ELE was proving less and less useful as the dinos began teaming up with other dinos in order to swarm the checkpoint en masse. The overwhelmed Units had no choice but to fall back or risk death, if not worse being eaten, and as a result there were loosing upwards of seven to eight checkpoints a day. At this rate they were going to run out of places to fallback to as they would all be squeezed into the Workers Village within a month, yet they had no choice but to keep on fighting.

"_Of course that still doesn't even begin to cover the fact that more and more dinos are being encountered that are no longer on the verge of lysine madness_," thought Jake extremely unsettled by this turn of events. The two clear-eyed ankylosaurus were evidence enough of this fact, but how they were getting lysine was still beyond him.

"_We destroyed the fields didn't we?_" thought Jake slightly worried. Carly meanwhile had managed to escape the vehicle and was making her way towards him when one of the ankylosaurs noticed her and started advancing towards her. Jake fired a shot at it and the dino turned to stare at him.

"_That's right, focus on me_," thought Jake. The two dinos looked at each other a little bit confused, hunting prey wasn't something they were used to, before deciding to focus on Jake. Jake breathed a sigh of relief before a third ankylosaurus came crashing through the trees and made a beeline straight for Carly.

"Shit," said Jake as he realizing just how limited his options were. The two ankylosaurus were still between him and Carly yet she was unable to defend herself from this new threat. Then to make matters worse, Jake had only four rounds left in his gun. The scientist growled angrily before aiming his gun and firing.

"Carly, run!" shouted Jake. The hummer exploded as the bullet ruptured the engine block flinging debris everywhere as Jake tore off followed by Carly as they left the dazed dinosaurs behind. After a couple minutes of running, both slowed down breathing heavily.

"Well that was a close call," said Jake with a small grin. Carly meanwhile began slowly tearing up.

"You okay?" Jake asked concerned.

"Not again!" she shouted angrily. "I can't stand constantly staring death in the face every day! It's too much!"

"You're not going to die," said Jake as both starting heading down the road.

"My life has been placed in danger more times than I can count over these past two weeks!" shouted Carly. "I've either run into or ran from every kind of dinosaur we have on this island! My luck isn't going to hold, people have been severally injured since those fences have failed, so when's my luck going to run out? I can't take it anymore, I can't."

"So don't think about it," Jake advised. "I certainly don't."

He snapped open his barrel to reveal the four remaining bullets as he searched his pockets for any more only to realize he was out.

"_Hope this'll last_," he thought a little worried.

"Not think about it?" demanded Carly. "There's nothing else to think about!"

"Sure there is," said Jake.

"Like what?" Carly asked.

"Like when the time comes that we wrestle back control of this island from the dinosaurs," said Jake with a grin.

"Given all we've seen lately I think that's only a fool's dream," said Carly.

"I doubt that very much," said Jake. "This island can still be reclaimed, maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even for another decade, but the opportunity will one day present itself when we can. And when that day comes you can be sure I'll seize a hold of it. This island will not be ruled by the dinosaurs forever. Life is not about to find a way here."

Carly began laughing.

"What?" Jake demanded.

"Nothing, you just reminded me of Hammond that's all," she said. Jake's blood went cold at that statement.

"What makes you say that?" he said trying to keep the anger out of his tone.

"When I used to work at Nublar right before it went under, I remember Hammond having a conversation with Ian Malcolm about life finding a way and Hammond seemed equally dismissive of the belief that 'life will find a way'. Funny how you are arguing the exact same thing," said Carly.

"Hammond and I are nothing alike," said Jake bitterly. "He would kill a million humans to ensure that his dream, his vision, would succeed. The man was a monster and a menace. You know I may not see eye to eye with Peter either, but at least he's not stupid enough to put humanity above those things. Humanity's well being supersedes any care or concern for the dinosaurs."

"So whereas Hammond would kill a million humans to save one dinosaur, you on the other hand would kill a million dinosaurs to save one human?" asked Carly. "Don't take this the wrong way but that sounds like opposite sides of the same coin to me."

Jake sighed and just shook his head.

"What?" demanded Carly.

"You're extremely tired and you're just talking nonsense," said Jake not wanting to get upset with her.

"Or maybe I'm just going sane in an insane world!" shouted Carly beginning to wobble all over the road.

"Maybe," Jake conceded shrugging. "But if that's the case-."

Jake whipped his Long Colt around and aimed it at Carly who screamed and leapt to the ground as Jake fired it. The bullet whizzed past her and smacked into an angry pachycephalosaurus that had just emerged from the tree-line right next to her.

"Then it's just a cross I'm willing to bear," finished the scientist as he lowered his smoking gun. The dinosaur spit blood from its mouth before collapsing, the bullet having penetrated even its bony dome skull.

"And another one bites the dust," said the scientist happily. He then noticed Carly was still lying on the ground not moving. Jake rushed to her side to find her alive but unconscious.

"Great," he said holstering his gun. Jake looked at Carly awkwardly wondering how to get her to their destination. Clearly dragging her was out of the question but then how?

"Well John, let's see if that fireman's carry has any real 'weight' behind it," said Jake aloud while simultaneously groaning at his pun. He placed his gun on the ground and awkwardly stooped down and after a couple tries managed to drape Carly across his top shoulders.

"Ah shit," he said in pain from the extra weight. "You're right John I do need to work out more."

Jake barely managed to pick his gun back up without falling over before he stumbled off while secretly hoping that he didn't encounter any more trouble along the way.

Later: Carly groaned and held her head as she looked up at a bright light above her.

"Where am I?" she asked still a little bit woozy.

"In the realm of consciousness," said a detached voice. Carly painfully tilted her head to see Jake sitting next to her deep in thought with his hands crossed in front of his face, his right hand still clasping his Long Colt.

"Where are we?" asked Carly.

"In one of the many bunkers adorning Sorna," said Jake leaning back in his chair and resting his feet on the table that she was laying on.

"How'd I get here?" asked Carly not about to get up. "The last thing I remember is saying something about…Hammond-Hammond? Why the hell would I talk about him?"

"I think you were delirious from lack of sleep," Jake surmised not willing to reveal what she'd said to him.

"I hope I didn't offend anybody," Carly said. "I have a habit of speaking my mind when I'm tired and cranky."

"Relax," Jake assured her. "You didn't."

"So how'd I get here?" Carly asked finally sitting up.

"I carried you," said Jake still wincing at his aching shoulders. "We met up with Unit 17 at the next checkpoint only to realize that it had been abandoned with evidence of dilophosarus tracks in the nearby area. Needless to say whoever was manning that checkpoint had every right to run once they heard that telltale hooting sound they make. At that point we got a communiqué from home base indicating that Unit 6 had run into a little trouble of their own regarding those allosaurs and would be unable to pick us up. So we immediately came here and you've been out cold for the past few hours while we patiently wait for an evac."

Carly looked around to see a couple members shifting uncomfortably in their chairs while attempting to get some sleep while atop the steps she heard the soft sound of plastic hitting concrete.

"Full house!" shouted a voice at the top of the stairs as another voice groaned.

"Hey Jake what've you got?" asked the same voice. Jake leaned forward and picked up a group of cards that had been lying on the table next to Carly.

"A loosing hand," he responded. Laughter erupted as to members of Unit 17 descended the stairs.

"Ah too bad, looks like you lost again," said one of the two members. Jake shook his head before pulling back on the trigger of his gun causing the gun to click empty.

"I still think you're cheating," the scientist said leaning back in his chair.

"Too bad you can't prove it! Ha, ha," laughed the other worker.

"Status report," Jake said with a grin as he cut off the worker's gloating. The worker mock scowled before sitting at the edge of the table as Carly sat up and slid off of it and towards a group of canteens nearby.

"It's quiet for now, but that also means the radio hasn't been active either and that disturbs me more than anything else," said the worker. Jake nodded his head also concerned.

"Since Carly's finally awake, I think we need to get moving," he said finally. "We've been here too long as it is and with the checkpoints falling one after the other we're only getting ourselves farther and farther away from civilization."

Jake got up and the other workers did too as they grabbed their weapons and headed for the stairs.

"Hold up," said Jake as walked over to a nearby rack and began tossing radios to everyone before unlocking the rifle cabinet and began tossing more rifles to the various workers before handing out shells to all of them.

"I don't want these," Carly protested when Jake handed her a pair of rifles.

"You don't use them just hold onto them," said the scientist as he gave her some bullets. "But believe me; you're probably going to want to."

The others nodded solemnly and headed up the stairs to the outside. They emerged into the daytime sun with the workers fanning out and taking up defensive positions around the front door. Jake emerged with a rifle in his hands, he'd holstered his Long Colt as he didn't want to waste it's remaining ammo, and directed it's aim along the tree line. He nodded satisfied and swung his arm down the roadway as the team headed down it.

"How long of a walk are we talking about here?" Carly whispered to Jake as she walked alongside him.

"It's about five days back to Embryonics Administration," Jake said before smiling as Carly winced at that statement. "But there should be a motor pool a day and half away."

Carly breathed a sigh of relief as Jake briefly laughed before both continued down the road in silence.

"And what's between us and it?" she asked finally, not wanting to know.

"I don't think you want to know," Jake warned.

"Look," said Carly a little bit upset. "I already know that dilos are out there, so what could be worse then them; raptors, deinonychosaurs, spinosaurs, rexes?"

"Something much, much worse," said Jake solemnly.

"What?" demanded Carly. "What could be worse?"

Jake swallowed hard before answering her question.

"Dimetrodons."


	20. Fighting to Survive

Anguirus111 Note: I have no doubt that if any of the dinosaurs in my story could be considered the main villains, it'd be the dimetrodons. Granted they haven't shown up for very long in any of my stories, but they're extremely deadly and even though Michael Crichton was probably speculating when he came up with their ability to cloak into their surroundings perfectly in The Lost World, the team could only spot their moving of the jungle around them and not the dinos themselves. It left quite the impression on me when I first read it. I hope they show up someday in a Jurassic Park movie, I'd see it the first day if that ever happened.

Sorna: Unit 17 made their way solemnly down the road as they watched out for any signs of dinosaur presence.

"So what exactly is a dimetrodon?" asked Carly.

"How can you not know?" asked Jake shuddering involuntarily. "Everyone here knows. Hell I don't think any of us will forget what happened when we bred the first one."

"I worked on Nublar," said Carly. "I don't know what happened on this island! Hell I didn't even know this island existed until I got transferred here on the boat. I was supposed to be a tour guide back on Nublar, not here."

"Does anybody want to explain to Carly why the dimetrodons are the real terror on this island?" asked Jake to the other members.

"Not particularly," said one of them. "We'd just as soon rather forget really."

"Well I need to know," said Carly. "I remember you mentioning that there was some debacle involving them and their creator, but you didn't explain much more than that."

"A debacle is putting it nicely," said Jake. "When we first bred a dimetrodon, the instant it reached adulthood it vanished, literally. We didn't want to risk another A1 incident so the creator of it, Dr. Langstrom, went to go find it but he never came back. We then sent out some teams to go find out, what happened to him, but they were promptly slaughtered. Eventually we discovered that the dimetrodons had a type of camouflage even greater than a chameleon, the thing blended into the background scenery so well the cameras and motion trackers couldn't even spot them. We then cordoned off the area and beefed up the motion trackers to detect branch movements and jacked up the sound recording system. But now that we've lost all power to the fences and we killed power to those other two systems well before then to pour more juice into the fences. But now that those dinosaurs are loose and quite possibly lysine mad, we're all in trouble."

"So when were you planning on shipping those dinos to Nublar?" asked Carly. "Assuming it hadn't been overrun."

"Never," said Jake before he yanked up his rifle and aimed it a noise he thought he heard. A flock of birds came tearing out of the trees and Jake slowly lowered his rifle.

"Never?" asked Carly. "How is that possible?"

"Because of a little thing called The DNS List," Jake explained. "A list Henry Wu and I came up with to make sure that certain dinosaurs would never be placed in a situation where they could bring harm to innocent civilians."

"Oh," said Carly. "So why make them in the first place?"

"That is the burning question," said Jake solemnly. "Why did we do it? Why did we intentionally breed super predators that could potentially tip the scales against humanity?"

"Why?" Carly prompted.

"I don't know," said Jake. "And that is ultimately what scares me the most. More so than the deinonychosaurs, the dimetrodons, the spinos, what we did here is our fault. I thought I understood this before, but I really had no idea until now, when we're truly forced to face the consequences of our decision. I think that ultimately is what Jeffrey wanted me to realize. Oh sure I could claim that I knew what was really happening on this island, but I could never acknowledge it to him. But now, now I understand but it's too late to do anything about it, all that's left now is to survive. Survive to see that _this_ doesn't happen again."

"That reminds me of another thing Ian Malcolm once said," Carly said thoughtfully.

"What?" asked Jake about his cousin, whose current situation he new little about.

"I was eating lunch in the cafeteria when I overheard a heated argument coming from the dining area. And I distinctly remember something Dr. Malcolm said, something about how the scientists there stood on the shoulders of geniuses and without thinking about whether or not they should be creating these dinosaurs, they instantly turned around and tried to make a profit off of it. Then he said: 'What you call progress, I call the rape of the natural world.' I always found that interesting for some reason, guess I know why now," said Carly shivering as she looked around at the encroaching jungle.

"Sounds like Ian to me," said Jake nodding. "Always the optimistic pessimist, at least before I endangered his life by sending him to Nublar."

"Oh," said Carly confused, but she chose not to pursue it. At that instant the ground began shaking.

"Oh shit," said Jake hanging his head low. The team moved to the sides of the road as a massive almasaur appeared and walked across the road. The team looked up at it extremely daunted by the thing's tall size, before it vanished from sight.

"They move in herds my ass, Dr. Grant," said Jake remembering something he'd read from Alan Grant once.

"I think he was referring to brachiosaurs," one of the workers commented.

"Meh," said Jake shrugging. They walked to the flattened path the almasaur had made in the jungle and looked down it. Jake looked at it thoughtfully before he dug out his map and looked at it.

"Although I am reluctant to suggest this," Jake began. "If we follow the path that almasaur made through the jungle, we could easily cut a half a day off of our journey to the motorpool."

The rest of the team shuddered at the prospect of traveling through the jungle at all.

"Look, we don't have much of a choice," said Jake. "By my estimates if we keep walking down the road to the motorpool, by the time we get to it and to Embryonics Adminstration, it will already be under attack from the dinos…or worse."

The team grew even more depressed at that prospect.

"Either come or don't," said Jake. "But I'm going."

The scientist began walking down the trampled path with trees having been pushed all over the place. The team looked at each other sadly before following Jake in. Jake slung his rifle behind him as took out his Long Colt again. Though he didn't want to have to use the weapon, he felt safer having it on hand than not.

"Penny for your thoughts," said Carly coming up next to him.

"I was just thinking about why we don't have any portable motion trackers," said the scientist. "They'd probably come in handy right about now."

"You said they couldn't detect the dimetrodons anyway," Carly pointed out.

"Yeah, but some assurance is better than none," Jake responded. As Carly was about to respond, a distinct hooting noise was heard. The team instantly dropped to the ground, save for Carly who Jake had to yank down.

"What?" she demanded. "It's only an owl."

Jake held a finger up to her lips as he put on a pair of protective goggles. The rest of the team put on theirs as well before Jake handed an extra pair to Carly.

"What?" began Carly confused.

"Put them on," said Jake. "And be quiet. We've got dilos."

Carly knew what dilophosaurs were, they'd been on Nublar before she had left and she knew what they were capable of.

"If we stay low, they probably won't notice us," said Jake. At that moment a dilophosaurus emerged from the tree line. But this dilo was very bloody and had several bite marks around it. It turned around and slowly began looking around frantically before its frill popped open and it fired a glob of venom at some unseen object still beyond the trees.

"What do you think it's firing at?" asked Carly confused. The dilo continued looking around frantically before it spotted the team on the ground. It looked at them confused before resuming its search for its unknown target.

"Something it can't see," began Jake solemnly. At that moment the branches parted but then closed with nothing apparently having emerged from them.

"That was weird," said Carly confused.

"Oh my God," said Jake in shock. The dilo began firing more and more venom at the still moving branches.

"The hell is it shooting at?" demanded Carly.

"You can't see it?" demanded Jake.

"No," said Carly. Jake groaned as he realized Carly hadn't spent countless hours looking at photos of a camouflaged dimetrodons in an effort to see if he could recognize them easier.

"There's a dimetrodon stalking that thing," said Jake. "But the dilo can't see it, it can only sense it."

"You're crazier than that thing is," said Carly shaking her head as she watched the spectacle. But then out of nowhere the dimetrodon dropped its camouflage and seemed to appear out of thin air. Carly began screaming before Jake clamped his hand over her mouth.

"We've got to get out of here now," said Jake. He motioned to the team and the abruptly got up and began firing at the two dinosaurs in front of them. The two dinosaurs went down in a hailfire of bullets as Unit 17 tore down the pathway. Dinosaur roars erupted from the trees as Jake swung his rifle around and began firing blindly into them.

"Lay down a suppressing fire and fall back!" Jake shouted as Carly covered her ears from the loud gunshots. More dinosaur roars were heard as the whole jungle on both sides began shaking violently.

"RPG shots left and right!" shouted Jake as he continued firing. The worker with the launcher nodded and popped off one shot to one side of the path and one to the right causing massive explosions to go off. The jungle then erupted as over a dozen dimetrodons appeared, sans cloak, and chased after the group.

"Sir!" shouted the worker. "Shouldn't we stay and fight?"

"No," said Jake shaking his head. "For everyone you see I bet there's at least another two that are cloaked! Our only chance is to outrun them; we don't have enough ammo to hold out forever."

The workers nodded and continued capping off some shots behind them. Jake meanwhile swung his rifle around and scanned the area in front of him with it. Spotting something that satisfied him, he fired. A roar erupted as blood spurted from out of nowhere and a dimetrodon dropped dead in front of them. Carly's jaw dropped as she briefly slowed to look at the thing before Jake shoved his rifle at her.

"Reload," he said simply as he grabbed the one she was holding and cocked it.

"I'm not your servant!" Carly complained over the noise of yet another explosion behind them.

"It's either that or start firing," said Jake simply as he continued scanning the ground in front of them.

"Fine," Carly huffed as she opened the barrel and began pouring in more rounds. A couple minutes passed filled with just gunshots and dinosaur roars.

"We've got to stop this soon," said Jake beginning to breathe heavier. Carly nodded.

"And we've got to anticipate this noise drawing more unwanted attention," she said. Jake nodded in agreement. As if fate was on their side, the pathway the almasaur had left behind conveniently led to a nearby river.

"_Guess it was thirsty_," Jake thought. "_Well it's our advantage now_."

"You'd better not be thinking what I think you're thinking," said Carly.

"Guys," said Jake slinging his rifle. "Let's go for a swim!"

"Oh no," said Carly with dread. Then the two leapt into the water and were immediately swept downstream. The rest of Unit 17 capped off another few shots before leaping in as well. The dimetrodons instantly skidded to a halt and roared angrily at the departing humans before slowly turning around and trundling off.

The team meanwhile was being tossed and turned in the river as they were quickly and rapidly being drawn further and further along it.

Several miles away over the Pacific Ocean: The wind currents coupled with warm water indicated a disaster waiting to happen. And it came when a tropical storm began brewing and instantly set out on its way east.

San Diego: "And so concludes my report on the current situation on Isla Sorna," said Ed Regis. "Jake Whitacre seems pessimistic about this next part and I can't say I blame him given how well you've handled that island, but all the same I pray that you make the right decision and get those people the hell off that island."

The image shut off as the report concluded and the Board looked at each other hesitantly. Hammond, who had shown up to listen to the report felt even worse than usual.

"So what do we do now?" asked Lucious. Peter Ludlow just sat there apprehensively.

"I-I don't know," he said truly at a loss for words. None of them had known just had badly the situation had truly deteriorated to on Site B.

"I suppose we _could_ ignore it," he said finally. The Board went into an uproar over that.

"What do you mean ignore it?" demanded Samantha. "People are dying over there!"

"And they could easily present us with liability suits," Ludlow pointed out. "The amount we'd loose over lawsuits regarding their deaths would be greater than any lawsuits involving them themselves. And we aren't dealing with ordinary circumstances here either."

"I'm not hearing this," said Samantha shaking her head. "Are you saying we should let them die?"

"I don't know why I'm saying!" Peter shouted. "I'm just know that Ingen does not need this right now!"

Silence descended on the group.

"This is my fault," said Hammond finally. "I should've done something, I should've said something. Now it's my fault Site B is being turned into a Lost World and there's nothing any of us can do about it."

More silence.

"He's right," said Lucious finally. "I don't think we have much of a choice anymore, this isn't just something we can continue to ignore."

"Yeah," said Samantha sadly. "That's the problem with reality, even when we ignore it, it still doesn't go away; case in point."

She pressed a button on the remote and on the big screen where earlier Ed Regis was seen giving his report, a thermal scan of Sorna popped up.

"What are those?" demanded Lucious. On the screen were numerous yellow pinpricks all over the island.

"Our best guess: explosions," said Samantha darkly. Some of eyes bugged out from across the Board.

"My God," said Hammond looking up at the scan.

"This scan is actually a couple weeks old back when the fighting first started," Samantha explained. "Here's a progression of it for every day since then."

The image shifted and this time the dots were further inland, then further, inland, then further inland, and so on until the final image rolled by and froze on screen.

"They're being boxed in," Samantha explained. "And at this rate they'll have nowhere to run in about two weeks. And as bad as it sounds, this is the least of our worries right now."

"What could be worse?" demanded Ludlow disbelieving her.

"This," said Samantha pressing another button on the remote as the weather channel came up.

"It is official folks a new tropical storm has just materialized off the coast of Costa Rica today. They're calling it Tropical Storm Clarissa, but there's no doubt it's not going to remain that way much longer. Thanks to the warm waters still left behind in the wake of Tropical Storm Bert, this storm has the potential to become a whopper of a hurricane. But don't worry folks, it appears it's just going to follow Bert and once again smash into Los Cinco Muertos again. Oddly enough that's just about the third storm in as many months to hit that island chain, but thankfully the islands are uninhabited that I must say if you are on those islands, I'd get off ASAP," said the announcer. "Well, back to you Bob."

Samantha shut off the monitor.

"Do we even still have the resources necessary to get those people off that island?" asked Ludlow finally.

"Not in the timeframe necessary to get them off before this 'Clarissa' hits it," said Lucious reviewing his notes. "Most of our pilots were moved on to other areas where their services would be better suited and we sold off most of the helicopters in Costa Rica to cover our financial losses incurred over the loss of Nublar. And we still have yet to clean up the mess that's still going on over there."

Hammond became even more downtrodden over Fox's diatribe, but he did not speak up about it.

"So what do you propose that we do?" asked Lucious to Hammond.

"I-I don't know," said Hammond at a loss for words.

"There may be another option," Samantha mused.

"Which is what exactly?" balked Ludlow.

"That Pharmaceuticals CEO, John Brown, has been attempting to do everything in his power to get those people off that island for months now. Perhaps he'd be willing to negotiate some kind of deal with us," Samantha suggested.

"Absolutely not," said Ludlow immediately. "He just wants us off that island so he can steal all the technology to further bolster his company's wealth."

"I don't think so," said Samantha lightly disagreeing with him. "He's offered to buy the technology off of us to help us reduce our debts for a long time now and if he was to steal the technology and we found out, we could easily sue him and win. And besides, that technology isn't going to be functioning for much longer after Clarissa tears that island to pieces. I say we give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, for all we know he'd be willing to pay _us_ to get those people off. Either way, it'll be no financial loss on our part, you can't argue with that Peter."

Ludlow remained silent in the face of that logic.

"Then it's settled," said Hammond. "Samantha since it was your suggestion, why don't you make the arrangements. Until then, this meeting is adjorned."

The Board got up to leave, except for Samantha, but Ludlow walked over to her anyway.

"If he steals anything this is on your head," he said simply before leaving. Samantha watched him go as the doors to the boardroom finally closed.

"The joke's on you Ludlow," said Samantha angrily as she pulled out her cellphone and pressed speed dial on it.

"Hello," said the voice on the other end.

"Congrats John they bought it," said Samantha into it.

"Excellent," said John Brown on the other end. "Thank you Sam this means a lot to me."

"Now can I quit Ingen and come work for you?" asked Samantha hopefully.

"Not yet sis," John laughed at the other end. "If you leave now Ludlow could finally accuse me of industrial espionage."

"Like he couldn't already," snorted John's younger sister. "He knows we're related you know, he's not that stupid."

"Of course he does, but if he were to accuse you of anything without proof then you could openly act against in spite," John responded. "Anyway thanks for the call I'll get on it right away."

Pause.

"Are you in San Diego?" asked Samantha confused before explaining. "This line is too clear of static for you to be anywhere else."

"Yeah but not for long," John responded. "I have an errand to run and then it's right back to Costa Rica to supervise the evacuation of Sorna."

"How's Sarah dealing with all your traveling?" asked Samantha.

"She knew how much I traveled when we were dating, so this is nothing new to her," said John. "Though after this whole Ingen Debacle is over I'll be able to finally slow down."

"You know J," began Samantha hesitantly. "Based on our report, Jake's done some pretty bad things on that island. I'm a little bit worried that when you rescue him he may not be the same person he was when he left."

"Yeah I know," John responded mournfully. "But he wanted me to run one final errand for him and it still gives me hope that he still retains some flicker of his humanity yet."

"What errand?" asked Samantha, her interest piqued.

"Sorry, classified," said John abruptly. "I'll see you soon."

The line went dead and Samantha scowled before getting up and leaving the room as well.

San Diego: Stephanie Sandelder sat in her apartment reading a report from Ingen on what was going on regarding Isla Sorna that she had 'stumbled across'. She sat there both shocked and dismayed at its findings. Stephanie tossed the folder onto her coffee table in disgust as she slowly sipped her cappuccino. At that moment there was a knock at her door so she quickly hid the folder under a cushion on her couch before composing herself and opening the door.

"Hello," said the person on the other end in a dark business suit with heavy sunglasses. "I'm-."

"John Brown. I know," said Stephanie shaking her head. "I still remember you. You said Jake was wasting his time teaching me Economics."

"Yes well," said John a little put off by her accusations. "I was wrong. But this isn't about you and me, it's about Jake."

"What about him?" demanded Stephanie. "Come to say he's a madman? He's not, no matter what he's done, no matter what's become of him, he'll still always be the same person I knew."

"I know," said John nodding his head. "May I come in?"

Stephanie sighed. "Is this going to be a long visit?"

"No," said John. "I have to make arrangements to evacuate Sorna."

Stephanie's eyebrows shot up at that as John entered and sat down on her couch.

"Ingen finally budged?" she asked. "I'm surprised I didn't hear about that."

"Yeah, especially since you made off with one of their reports," John snorted.

"How did-I don't know what you're talking about," Stephanie stammered.

"Relax, Samantha agreed to cover your tracks, just make sure she gets your report when you're done with it," said John as Stephanie sat down next to him.

"Is that all you wanted to say?" asked Stephanie. "Then you can go now."

"No that's _not_ what I came here to talk about," said John sadly. "I came to speak about Jake."

"I told you. No matter what happens to him I will always stand by him," said Stephanie. "I made a promise to him that I would and I intend to see that promise fulfilled."

"And I'm just here to tell you that Jake has gone down a path that's going to take him a long time to recover from," said the CEO. "I don't think I'll be able to help him and I don't think you'll be able to either. This is a road Jake has to travel down alone."

"Yeah well I'm still quitting Ingen," said Stephanie resolutely. "They hurt Jake and I'll be damned if I'm going to continue working for them."

"I wouldn't do that," John advised. "Being a secretary at Ingen is a very well paying job period and to give it up would be mistake. It'll certainly earn you more than going into psychology at any rate plus its steady income."

"In case you haven't heard, Ingen's going down in flames," said Stephanie angrily. "I'm going to be fired soon! Hell I'm surprised I wasn't fired already!"

"There's a reason for that," said John. "_I_ made sure that you weren't. You work for Samantha, Samantha works for me. She's not going anywhere and neither are you."

"You're not the boss-," began Stephanie.

"If you want to help Jake you will leave him alone," John repeated.

"Why?" demanded Stephanie.

"Because the only thing Jake cares about right now is your safety. He's…smitten with you," said John slightly disgusted. "Sure he won't openly admit it but we both know it's true. He'd do anything to protect you and I suspect that's why he's doing what he's doing on that island. If you suddenly are without a job, Jake will do whatever he can to get you one and that will only further hinder his ability to recuperate from his ordeal on Sorna. I can't and won't allow it. One day he'll come to his senses and you and him can do whatever you damn well please I don't care. But until then all I ask is that you leave him alone."

Stephanie looked absolutely crushed to John and he wasn't happy about being so blunt, but he had more important things to do at the moment.

"You're a bastard," said Stephanie finally.

"I don't have much of a choice," John responded. "Because this isn't about me and it isn't about you, it's about Jake. He will come work for me but I seriously don't expect him to spend a single day doing any real 'work'; at least not until he has found his way again."

Stephanie sighed again.

"You know Jake was the best thing to ever happen to me?" she demanded. "He actually cared who I was for a change. He was always there to help me out whenever I needed it. When I needed a job to help foot some of the bills for college, he got me a job at Ingen just days later working directly under him. My girlfriends to this day say he's just waiting to take advantage of me but it's been five years since I first met him and he's yet to suggest or demand anything of me. Now you say I should move on, how?"

"With this," said John as he snapped his fingers. A pair of workers came in hauling a crate that they set down on the floor and instantly pried it open. A rumble erupted from the cage as a protoceratops tore itself loose and instantly bounded onto the coffee table and into Stephanie's arms where it cooed happily. Stephanie looked at the thing in shock before she began scratching the creature's chin where it gurgled happily.

"Steviesaurus?" she said in shock. "I-I don't believe it. I thought I'd never see you again."

Stephanie broke down in tears as she cradled the dinosaur close to her.

"How did you get your hands on her?" asked Stephanie sadly.

"I hopped by Sorna a couple weeks back and asked Jake if he wanted me to mail anything for him. This was it," said John simply as he got up to go.

"He also wrote you a letter," said John giving it to her. "And I know raising a dinosaur is going to be difficult so if you need anything the local Pacific Pharmaceuticals branch will provide it to you no questions asked. Food, places to take her for walks, anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"Why so nice all of the sudden?" accused Stephanie.

"Because it's what Jake would've wanted me to do," said John finally and with that he left with his men leaving Stephanie alone with her dino. Reluctantly Stephanie picked up Jake's letter and read it.

Stephanie, by now I'm sure you've read or at least know what I've done on this island. I make no excuses for what I've done, you know that, but I just want you to know that you shouldn't fear for me, or just plain fear me because of what I've done. I'm still Jake Whitacre, nothing's going to change that it is just that lately I've found that I've lost my way. One day I'll find myself again and then I'll see you two once more. Good luck and see you in the future. Jake Whitacre.

Attached to the letter was the photo of Jake, Stephanie, and Steviesaurus together on that happy day so long ago and Stephanie tore it off and looked at it solemnly as Steviesaurus roared mournfully at the photo.

"Don't worry," said Stephanie. "We'll see daddy soon, we'll see him soon. Just…please be safe Jake that's all I ask."

Sorna: The water in the river rippled back and forth before Jake Whitacre and Unit 17, soaking wet and extremely muddy, emerged from it and stalked off into the island.


	21. Where Angels Fear to Tread

Sorna: The team slogged their way onto the bank of the river before collapsing down on it exhausted.

"Nice one Jake," Carly grumbled.

"At least we're still alive, which is more than I can say than if we had stayed back there with those dimetrodons," Jake responded pointedly. When he didn't get a response he looked at Carly who was just staring shocked at a massive cage rising out of the river and attaching itself to one of the walls of the massive valley they were now in.

"Where are we?" asked Carly in awe.

"Right where I wanted us to be," said Jake simply as he slowly approached the cage with the group in tow.

"What is it?" asked Carly confused.

"The pteranodon cage," answered one of the workers looking up at it. "It's the only self-contained cage on the entire island."

"And for good reason," Jake responded. "But what it means to us is that now we're only a half a day away from Embryonics Administration."

"Yeah but that's up above the valley. How do you propose we get there?" asked one of the workers. "Because even you know that we're no match for what's in there."

"That's why we're going to climb the fence," said Jake simply as he walked up to it. Murmurs erupted from the group.

"You're crazy," said Carly.

"Or maybe I'm just going sane in an insane world," Jake retorted. Carly looked at him confused, but somehow had a feeling that that meant more to him than he was letting on. Jake shrugged her confusion off before grabbing the side of the fence upon which he began convulsing and screaming.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" he shouted in pain as Carly screamed and the team dropped their weapons to go help him before Jake suddenly stopped moving. He turned around and looked at the group with a grin.

"Heh, heh, heh," he laughed as the team groaned and Carly smacked him.

"That wasn't funny!" she said upset.

"Sorry, couldn't resist," said Jake as he began to start climbing before Carly stopped him.

"We need to break first," she said. "We're still soaking wet and tired from the dip in the river."

Jake looked down at her and then at the team before he hopped off of the cage.

"Alright," he said. "Fifteen minutes then."

The Unit collapsed on the riverbank as Jake slowly sat down and took out his Long Colt and snapped open the barrel to drain the water from it.

"We all here?" asked Jake. "I got a quick headcount I just want verification."

"Yeah we're all here," someone said relieved.

"Good," said Jake. "Equipment check?"

"We lost some our rifles but we still have our packs and sealed MREs," said one of the workers.

"Oh great, that's just what I was looking forward to," said Jake disgusted as he took one out, opened it, smelled it, and nearly gagged.

"This _is_ your fault that we have to eat these," one of the workers pointed out as they bit into their bar and began coughing.

"Believe me when I say with complete and total honesty that when I had these things put into every bunker on this island I did not expect to ever be eating them," said Jake humiliated. "What about you guys? Did you ever expect to be running from dinos when you first signed on with Ingen?"

"Can't say that I did," admitted one of the workers. "I signed on as an electrician, I had no idea Ingen was even involved with creating dinosaurs."

"I don't think any of us did," said another worker. "What about you Jake, did you know?"

"I had no freaking clue," responded the scientist as he choked down his MRE.

"So what were your expectations when Ingen hired you?" asked Carly curious.

"Just that it had something to do with genetic work," responded Jake. "Henry and I had briefly managed to briefly resurrect a dodo bird using in-vitro fertilization with a normal duck and we figured that's why they wanted us. So that and the fact that Hammond owned a zoo in Kenya led us to believe we'd either be cloning animals about to go extinct or possibly cloning animals that _had_ gone extinct. I suppose the second supposition was correct though I had no idea the specimens would be over sixty-five million years old."

"And when you finally found out?" asked a worker.

"I thought Hammond was nuts,"

"So why'd you continue working there?" asked Carly.

"Because what Hammond was proposing had never been done before," said Jake. "And could you imagine what would happen if you succeeded, you'd be the most famous person on the planet!"

Silence.

"But yeah I never did question about whether what I was doing was 'right' or not," Jake said answering their unanswered question before beginning to laugh. "I remember when someone once told me: 'I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you want to sell it!' Ian you ass, you were right."

Jake laid down on the bank as the other members of Unit 17 looked at him like he'd gone nuts before going back to their MREs. After a couple moments of silent chewing, the team got up as a collective unit and approached the birdcage.

"Every vertical bar has a ladder in the case that a part of the cage needed to be repaired. I think we should take the one closest to the canyon wall so in the event we do pick up any pterandon attention they'll have a hard time getting at us," said Jake. "Everybody got it? Cool."

The team walked towards the cavern wall and located the ladder and immediately began climbing it.

"Were the pteranodons going to be on the DNS list?" asked Carly after a long silence of climbing.

"No. The cage was in the process of being built on Nublar along with a hotel called The Sky Lodge where tourists could view the pteranodons from a safe distance. Though I think Hammond was trying to set it up so it might've been possible for a Pteranodon to roost there so people could go up and pet it. If Hammond had done that that thing would've gone immediately on the DNS list," said Jake rolling his eyes. "Hammond you can be so naïve sometimes."

More climbing.

"J-," began Carly before Jake waved his hand and she stopped. Jake narrowed his eyes and strained his ears as he attempted to listen for something.

"Confirm?" Jake asked.

"Confirm," said one of the workers. Jake scowled and took out his Long Colt and prayed it was dry enough to fire properly.

"Why don't we just keep climbing?" asked Carly worried.

"We can't," said one of the workers. "They'd be on us in a second."

"But we're on the other side of the cage!" she protested.

"They can still try and force their beaks through mesh covering to try and get to us," said that same worker. "Decoy?"

"Not yet," responded Jake. "Give it a minute."

The flapping of wings was heard in the mist inside of the dome as some of the members of Unit 17 managed to swing their rifles around and aim them into the dome, while still keeping one hand on the ladder.

"Remember: short controlled bursts," said Jake.

"Like you know what you're doing," Carly grumbled before she gasped.

"You need to sleep more," Jake observed as Carly looked up at him in shock.

"_How the hell did he know?_" she wondered but before she could ask.

"Decoy," said Jake. One of the workers took out a flare gun and fired it into the cage. The burning flare soared through the mist and illuminated a few pteranodons who immediately chased after it.

"Climb," said Jake as the team hastily raced up the ladder. A couple moments later however, an angry shrill was heard coming right at them. Rather than issuing a vocal command, Unit 17 fired in all directions into the cage and moments later a bloody pteranodon carcass slammed into the cage in front of them causing the cage to rattle heavily before the bird plummeted to the ground far below.

"Keep moving," said Jake as he hurriedly scrambled up the ladder. The rest of the team followed suit as more angry bird calls were heard.

"Decoy," said Jake. Another flare went flying out illuminating more pteranodons. This time the team opened fire on the birds rather than waiting for them to chase the burning ball.

"C'mon, just a little bit more to go," said Jake as the shrilling grew louder. Then the pteranodons were upon them. A mass of the birds suddenly appeared out of the mist and began trying to get their beaks through the iron bars to try and get at the team.

"Fire!" shouted Jake as muzzle flashes were seen. Several pterandons were ripped to shreds but still more came. This time their beaks managed to slam into some of the workers causing them to grunt in pain and a couple of them even dropped their weapons to the river below. Then just when they were about to close in, an RPG shot went off blasting a large chunk of rock out of a nearby wall causing is to rain down on the pteranodons who flew off.

"Good shot," said Jake approvingly.

"Too bad it was our last one," responded the worker with the cannon as he put it away. "Now what?"

"How much ammo do we have left?" asked Jake finally.

"Not enough to survive another run in with those things," said a worker below him. "I'm dry."

"Rather than figure out who doesn't have anything, let's find out who does," said Jake.

Silence.

"Oh hell," said Jake defeated. "Carly?"

"I've got a rifle, presumably it's fully loaded," came the response from below him.

"Can you drop it to a worker below you?" asked Jake.

"I'd prefer not to," said Carly. "The worker might not catch it and then we'd really be out of luck."

"Will you shoot it?" asked Jake.

"I don't know," came the response.

"That's not good enough," said Jake. "People's lives are on the line."

"Okay," said Carly hesitantly. "I-I guess."

Some of the workers groaned.

"Jake," one of them began. Jake sighed and groaned at the same time before he held up his Long Colt.

"Alright I'll save us," came his embittered response. "But all you close your eyes and whatever happens you _do not_ ask me any questions alright?"

The workers just looked at him stunned, but nodded as Jake took his Long Colt and popped off the top of the gun revealing a strange apparatus inside, just above the gun's regular barrel.

"_John this had better work or I'm going to kill you_," Jake thought angrily as he swung the gun around and aimed it inside the cage as more wing flaps were heard along with numerous shrills.

"Decoy," said Jake. Another flare went rocketing off illuminating a huge flock of birds.

"Shut your eyes now!" Jake shouted as he thrust his gun into the cage. He swallowed hard and shut his eyes and pulled the trigger on the gun as the apparatus began blinking before whirring to life. An instant later a blinding flash engulfed the entire area.

"What the hell was that?" demanded Carly. The team was now next to the small building that the entrance to the pteranodon cage as some of the members applied first aid to their comrades who had been injured. Jake meanwhile was sitting on the hood of the car that Dillon had abandoned outside of the cage only a few week prior.

"I can't tell you!" said Jake angrily as he held his Long Colt in his hands that was currently pouring smoke out of the protective covering above the barrel.

"But-," began Carly again.

"Just drop it," said one of the workers. "Jake saved us, that's all that matters."

"And we need to get going," said Jake as he looked down the meadow to the Spinosaurus Pen that appeared to still be intact.

"Roger that," said one of the workers grimly, also looking at the pen. "Do you think it still has power?"

"It should," said Jake. "When we first realized the fences were going to fail no matter what we did, we stored enough power to keep that fence, the deinonychosaur pen, and the Velociraptor pit powered for at least another month or two. Course a couple weeks have passed and if those fences fail, we're never gonna know."

"Have we really been fighting the dinos for two weeks?" asked a worker incredulously. "It feels like forever."

"I'm just guessing it's been two weeks," said Jake truthfully. "It could actually be much more because my watch got fried during that incident with the Megalosaur and the still live fence wire."

The team nodded knowingly. Most hadn't been there, but they'd heard of Jake grabbing a hold of that sparking wire in order to electrocute that Megalosaur that was threatening to eat a member of Unit 6. Few doubted his anger towards the dinosaurs then, even fewer doubted it now.

"Thanks again," said the worker who Jake had saved.

"Just doing my job," responded the scientist. "But we really need to get to Embryonics Administration."

The group got up and approached the vehicle.

"It's going to be a tight fit," said Carly. "Shouldn't we take two trips?"

"Too dangerous," said Jake shaking his head. "We'll all fit…somehow."

"If you say so," said a worker unconvinced before an angry dinosaur roar was heard over the trees causing a flock of birds to erupt into the sky.

"Spinosaurus?" asked a worker as the ground began shaking.

"No," said Jake knowingly. "_Gojirasaurus__ Quayi_."

A massive biped emerged from the treeline and roared at them. Jake just looked at it calmly before drawing his trusty Long Colt once again and aimed it at the beast.

"Well we'd best be off," said Jake grimly as the team packed into the vehicle.

He got into the drivers seat and turned the key that was in the ignition. Miraculously the vehicle started up and was soon heading down the road with the dinosaur in hot pursuit.

"Jake," said one of the workers stuck in the back with nothing to do but stare at the dino.

"I'm kind of busy here," Jake shouted back to him. "Make it quick."

"Why isn't the dinosaur lysine-mad?" asked the worker. Jake did a double take as he looked at the mirror and noticed the dino's lack of bloodshot eyes.

"Ummm," said Jake confused. "I don't know."

"Is it a second-gen?" asked the same worker.

"How?" asked Jake. "We only bred one. And if we had there's no way it could've reached maturity this quickly."

"So what's going on? I thought we burned the fields," said the worker.

"We did burn the fields. But somehow I think Hammond managed to pull another fast one on us," said Jake convinced. "I'm beginning to be convinced that he somehow managed to insert a lysine producing gene inside of the dinos genetic structure that would kick in after a certain period of time. Sure a good chunk of the dinos would die, but not all of them."

"You really think Hammond would do that?" demanded Carly incredulously. "How, I thought you and Henry were the chief Ingen scientists?"

"We are," said Jake as he grabbed one of Carly's rifles and took a potshot at the Gojirasaurus. "But that doesn't mean that our finished version was not the final version. If Hammond screwed us over once with those fields, it stands to reason he'd do it again. Maybe he got another team of scientists to do it, I don't know. All I know is that it's as easy to take a gene out as it is to put it back in."

The dinosaur was beginning to draw closer and closer to them.

"And we are experiencing the aftereffects of that now," said Jake dryly. "Anybody have any suggestions as to how to get out of this?"

Silence.

"Oy," said Jake. "Well I'm out of ideas because so far I've been making things up as we go along and nothing's coming to me at the moment. God, here I am about to be eaten by a monster named after my favorite onscreen legend who I conveniently helped bring to life. Irony blows."

A nervous laugh erupted from the group as the dinosaur finally closed the gap between them. But just before it could clamp its mouth on the vehicle, an explosion rang out flinging dirt and debris everywhere. The Gojirasaurus looked around in confusion as more explosions went off all around it before the beast took off for calmer areas.

"Did you find an extra RPG shell?" asked Jake confused.

"No," said the worker confused. "I'm still out."

"Then-," began Jake as from out of the jungle appeared a quartet of Broncos.

"Welcome back to the land of the living Unit 17," the radio crackled to life.

"As opposed to what?" Jake asked humbly.

"The Land of the Lost," a chuckle came from the other end. Jake just rolled his eyes as Carly took the radio from him so he could concentrate on his driving.

"Good thing you're alive, we'd just about given up hope," said the voice again on the other end.

"Status?" asked Carly.

"Not so good. We're now just three fallback positions away from Embryonics Administration being overrun," came the response.

"Damn," said Jake under his breath.

"And what of Unit 6?" asked Carly.

"They didn't make it," said the voice on the other end sadly. "They were led into an ambush and were slaughtered before we could get to them in time."

Jake's hand began clenching the wheel tightly but he remained silent.

"That brings the total up to fifteen, which if Sam has lost that much, means we've lost thirty out of seventy-three people left on this island," said the voice even more depressed.

"Has there been any communications with Sam?" Jake asked softly, which Carly repeated into the radio.

"Long range communications are still down," said the response. The five vehicles emerged from the jungle and stopped in front of Embryonics Administration as nighttime finally appeared overhead. The groups got out and advanced into the building where they were greeted with a roaring applause for having survived two days alone in the jungle. Jake held up his hand to calm them down before descending the stairs into the bay. Jake weaved his way through the small crowd before arriving at the area where the seriously injured were being held.

"Hey Jake, nice to see you're still alive," said Sandy, the worker in charge of this particular area. She wasn't as good as Stormy but she had more first-aid training then the other workers.

"How are they?" asked Jake.

"Some will make, others I'm not so sure," said Sandy remorseful. "We're moving them out of here tomorrow morning at dawn back to the Workers Village."

"Yeah that's what I'd advise," said Jake. "Take whatever escort you need because we're going to do our best to mount a last stand here."

"You think they'll come here?" asked Sandy.

"I have no doubt," said Jake. "Some scientists were here engaging in ELE research with those cages we have inside this building. The dinos know what went on here and they'll attack it en masse I have no doubt about that. But we'll be waiting and we'll be ready."

"Well good luck," said Sandy. "Sorry I won't be around for the fireworks."

"It's for the best," said Jake. "Now get some sleep, you'll need your wits about you tomorrow."

Sandy nodded before checking on a patient and then walked off. Jake sighed before heading up the stairs and into his office. As he sat down, he looked at his dead computer and then at the pile of paperwork in his inbox and outbox. It was week's old but Jake still rifled through it and tossed some of it while filing others away in his file cabinet next to his desk. A knock was soon heard and Carly entered.

"Whatcha doing?" she asked.

"Filing," said Jake matter of factly as he scowled at a piece of paper he was looking at before writing something down on it before putting it in a folder on his desk.

"Why?" asked Carly as she snatched a piece of paper of his desk and reading it.

"DX Virus? The hell's that?"

"None of your concern," said Jake taking it from her and shredding it. "Old news that's no longer relevant. As for why I do it, it calms my nerves. It reminds me of happier times when this paperwork was my only enemy in the world."

"Oh," said Carly disappointed. "Sounds like fun."

"What's on your mind?" asked Jake as he took out his Long Colt and a cloth and began polishing it.

"I can't sleep," Carly admitted. "So what's the deal with you and that gun?"

Jake raised an eyebrow at her before shrugging.

"I made it myself by modifying an ordinary Colt Revolver by inverting the barrel thereby doubling its power," said Jake. "This baby'll shoot through anything guaranteed."

"Why'd you make it?"

"I needed an A in shop class," said Jake simply as he snapped open the barrel and loaded in six more bullets before spinning it and slamming the gun shut.

"Course I didn't figure on being expelled for it," Jake admitted. "But John Brown managed to pull some strings and get me admitted back in just days later."

"That was nice of him," Carly said looking at the gun.

"He does have connections," Jake admitted. "I never did ask him how he pulled that off... Oh well, anything else I can humor you with?"

"Can I see it?" asked Carly referring to the gun. Jake narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why?" he asked confused. "You hate guns."

"Just please humor me," Carly said. "And then I'll leave I promise."

Jake emptied the gun of its bullets before handing it to her handle first. Carly took it and looked at an inscription on it.

"BF Auto Ejecting Double Action?" said Carly confused. "So if shooting bullets is the first action, then the second action is…"

With one swift move she removed the top of the gun revealing the strange apparatus underneath before aiming out Jake's open window.

"What happens when I squeeze this trigger?" she demanded.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Jake calmly as he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on his desk.

"Why?" demanded Carly. "Are you afraid of me finding out what this thing does?"

"I was going to say it has a hell of a recoil," responded the scientist. "But that works too."

"What can this gun do?" demanded Carly.

"Why do you care?" asked Jake. "I think you just need some sleep is all; so please hand me back my gun."

"No," said Carly. "I'm going to figure out what this thing does first!"

"Carly," said Jake. "Give me the gun, you've clearly lost it again and you need some sleep. Now hand over the Long Colt."

"No!" shouted Carly. "What's the second action?"

"Classified," said Jake.

"Like hell it is," said Carly aiming the gun at him. "People's lives are at stake and I don't trust you with this!"

"Then keep it," said Jake beginning to get annoyed. "But put _it_ away."

"Make me!" said Carly. Jake groaned and rubbed his nose as Carly's hand began trembling with the gun grasped tightly in her hand. Jake yawned and stretched his arms out before he swung his right arm around so that it backhanded the Long Colt causing Carly to jump and pull the trigger. The device whirred to life and began glowing as Jake dove behind his desk as a massive laser blast tore from the top of the gun and shot out the open window where it slammed into a tree, blowing it up along with the nearby jungle. A mushroom cloud floated up from the ground as Jake stood up and took the gun from Carly before snapping the top back down onto it.

"Don't do that again," he said embittered as Carly fainted dead away from shock. Jake swung open his door and looked down at the agitated group below.

"I was just testing one of the landmines," Jake lied. The group nodded still tense but began to slowly calm down. Jake stepped back into his office and shut the door as he looked at the unconscious form of Carly.

"Forgive them for they know not what they do," Jake grumbled before picking up her unconscious form and depositing it on his couch before closing his window and leaving his office. He descended the stairs and made his way over to Sandy, who was trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in.

"This hard floor is the worst," she grumbled as she saw Jake approach.

"Yeah well, functionality over everything else," Jake said with a slight grin.

"What's up?" asked Sandy looking up at him as he squatted next to her.

"I need you to take Carly with you when you head back to the Workers Village," said the scientist.

"Why, what's wrong with her?" asked Sandy concerned.

"She's cracking up," said Jake sadly. "I've seen her loose it on two occasions now and when push comes to shove I think she's going to explode."

"That's too bad," said Sandy. "But it happens to us all sooner or later."

"Yeah," said Jake distantly. "Anyway she's out cold on my couch so pick her up before you leave, I'd really appreciate it."

"Will do," said Sandy. "See you tomorrow Jake."

Jake nodded and left as he pulled out his Long Colt and replaced the six bullets he'd taken out of it earlier. He then found a vacant spot and sat down and rested his back against one of the egg chambers before removing the top of the gun again and looking at it.

"_Automated Nuclear Generating Experimental Laser: Armed Recoilless Maser.__ Otherwise known as the ANGEL ARM_," Jake thought ridiculously as he read the inscription written on the second barrel. "I must've been nuts letting you modify this thing John."

Jake sighed and holstered his gun before dropping off into a deep sleep.

Miles away: An army of dinosaurs marched across the island trampling everything in their path, creating a Lost World, as the made their way with certainty towards Embyonics Administration and a confrontation with the worker of Site B.


	22. Last Stand

Anguirus111 Note: I think Jake has more of a hidden past than even I'm aware of. Somehow I just keep getting this vibe that he's done dark things that perhaps only John Brown knows about. I wrote in his bio that he joined Ingen immediately after college, but I'm beginning to think that the way I wrote him, that he may have done some undercover work for Pacific Pharmaceuticals that resulted in his gun having to be modified for whatever work that was and that he may have received some combat training. At any rate Jake probably has way more internal demons then he lets on.

Sorna: "Bye Jake, good luck," said Sandy as she sat in the passenger's seat of one of the vehicles with Jake on the other side of the open door.

"Thanks," responded the scientist amicably. "We'll need it. Watch over Carly, see that she doesn't snap completely."

"Will do," said Sandy as she swung her legs into the vehicle. Jake nodded and shut the door and the convoy moved off down the road away from the building. Jake picked up his rifle and swung it over his shoulder before heading off back into the building. Outside the remaining workers were busy setting up whatever armaments and traps they could in an attempt to stave off any unexpected early arrivals. Jake entered into the building and watched as a pair of workers mounted a Cobra Assault Canon on Stephanie's desk with the barrel facing outwards through the doors. Jake shook his head, wondering what Stephanie would've thought about it, before walking over to the vending machine and putting some change into it. Jake closed his eyes and punched in the number for his candy, hoping that something would no longer be changed and that it wouldn't give it to him, only to open his eyes and see the candy bar deposited at the bottom of the machine. Jake glumly bent down and took his candy and bit into it before sighing and walking off. A couple steps away, Jake growled and swung around and fired his rifle at the machine, causing the others to jump in shock. The bullet ricocheted off the plexiglass and smacked into the ground as Jake lowered his gun even more depressed and walked off. The workers watched him go in shock before returning to their duties. As Jake walked back to his office, he flopped down in his chair and rested his rifle on his desk as he aimlessly spun around. After a few turns, Jake stopped spinning and looked at his paperwork which he growled at and pushed off of his desk where it fell in a heap on the floor.

"You okay boss?" asked a worker sticking his head into Jake's office.

"Fine," said Jake with a grin. "I'm just a little on edge is all; this waiting has got me extremely anxious."

"Yeah I hear that," said the worker. "Maybe you should go for a walk or something to let off some steam."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Jake agreed as he grabbed his jacket off his coat rack. The scientist stooped down and picked up his paperwork before depositing it back on his desk before grabbing a packet on the DX Virus and walked off. He exited the building and headed off towards a path he used to take to Rupert's Deli back when it had still been open.

"Watch yourself out there," said a couple workers who were burying a cluster of landmines as he passed them.

"I think I've got enough protection," said Jake with a brief grin as he pulled back his coat revealing his Long Colt while hefting his rifle in his hands. He then turned his back on them and silently entered into the jungle. Jake walked along for a few minutes in complete and total silence listening for any sound of twigs or other branches being crunched before he emerged from the jungle fifteen minutes later to see Rupert's store in one piece. Jake went to the side of the building to verify the portable generator for the building was still running before switching on the propane tanks and walking inside. The scientist leaped over the counter and flipped on one of the burners on the gas powered stove.

"Now for a much needed lesson in chemistry," said Jake to himself as he approached the nearby refrigerator and opened it. "Patty plus heat equals burger."

Jake grabbed a frying pan off of the wall, sprayed some Pam into it, and then slapped a pair of burgers onto it before sitting in Rupert's chair and resting his packet on the counter and flipping though it. The DX Virus had popped up just recently and completely unnoticed by everyone on the island until they'd conducted ELE research and discovered it. Yet oddly enough only the herbivores had been affected by it and none of the carnivores had, but why? Jake was still completely bewildered as he grabbed some coffee grinds and put them into the coffee maker. The scientist continued rifling through reports complete unaware that outside, several shadows crept closer and closer to the building.

"Well if it wasn't the water then-," began Jake before he tensed and yanked out his Long Colt and trained it on the door. Jake sat there dead silent for a few moments before a pair of workers appeared and Jake set his gun on the counter.

"Sorry about the surprise J," said one of them as the walked in with their rifles lowered.

"No problem. What's up?" asked Jake concerned as he closed his packet.

"We've just lost the first checkpoint," said one of the workers grimly. Jake slumped his head down onto the counter in defeat.

"And it was overrun by an armada of dinosaurs," said the other worker. "Overrun by all species and dietary needs imaginable."

"Oh hell," said Jake with a wicked grin on his face. "Boy are we in for it now."

"Yeah well, we've evacuated the remaining fallback positions and have activated all remain mines and remote sentry units to shoot at anything that moves," said the first worker. "But we've been ordered to escort you back to Embryonics Administration immediately."

"What now?" asked Jake. "Surely they're not that close."

"No," said the workers. "But according to the workers who were manning the first defensive position, there were raptors at the front of the armada."

Jake looked at the two workers coldly.

"If you're lying to me," Jake began darkly.

"We swear it's the truth," said one of the workers. "This isn't something you joke about."

Jake looked behind him, grabbed his burgers off the pan before slapping them in some bread, quickly washing the pan only to hang it back up, before grabbing his coffee and his gun with the same hand before exiting the store with the two workers. The scientist then quickly walked over and kicked the propane off before heading out.

"Are all defenses set up?" asked Jake as he began eating one of his burgers.

"We've set up everything we have left out here," said the first worker. "Mortars on the roof, mines on the ground, assault cannons inside the building, snipers on the roof, this is gonna be a hell of a fight."

"Do we have our evacuation corridor set up?" asked Jake as he quickly downed his coffee and tossed the cup aside as he got a better grip on his gun.

"Yeah but I don't know exactly what we're going to fallback to," said the second worker. "We'll barely have any weapons left after this is done."

"We'll fight with stick and stones if we have to," said Jake strongly. "I've spent too many long hours on this island to just see it fall to the dinos without a fight."

The other workers nodded when suddenly a branch was heard snapping. Jake crouched down stuffed his second burger in his mouth as he swung his gun left and right in a sweeping motion as the other two workers aimed their weapons out into the jungle. Jake nudged one of them who shook startled before nodding.

"If you're a worker, you have ten seconds to announce your presence or we start firing," said the worker.

There was no response so Jake scowled and removed the second burger from his mouth and tossed it down the path. Instantly the jungle came to life as both a raptor and a deinonychosaur appeared and attacked the burger. They ate for a few moments before noticing the team with their barrels aimed at them.

"Left right spread now," said Jake. The two workers nodded and swung their guns to the sides of the path and opened fire as Jake capped off a couple rounds taking out the two carnivorous hunters.

"Let's move," said Jake as the team rushed down the path while behind them a pair of velociraptors appeared from the trees, bloodied, and collapsed from bullet hole wounds. As they raced down the path, occasionally firing a few rounds into the trees, Jake grabbed his radio and flipped it on.

"This is Jake Whitacre heading down Path 88-32, we've fallen under attack by velociraptors among other creatures," Jake yelled into it as he snapped up his gun and fired a shot into the jungle.

"Yeah it's a full on blitz," came the response as in the background explosions could be heard. "Just do what you can to get back here in one piece."

Jake scowled at the prospect of not being there for the fight but shrugged it off to remind himself of the moment at hand.

"Anybody got some flares?" Jake asked.

"Yeah I've got a pair, why?" asked one of the workers producing his flare gun upon which Jake promptly took it and loaded the gun before firing a flare off left and right into the jungle causing the whole place to erupt into flames. Anguished dinosaur roars were head as the three workers ran down the path.

"Oh I just though I'd discover if General Sherman's Total Warfare was all it was cracked up to be," Jake mused as burning branches fell all around them. Behind them burning dinosaurs appeared, burning flesh dripping from their bodies before they collapsed dead onto the path. The team continued running for the next several tense moments as the jungle collapsed all around them before finally pushing their way back into the clearing where Embryonics Administration was located. But if they were expecting a breather the trio wasn't about to get it as the area was filled with the loud noise of mortars going off as well as the firing of automatic weaponry. As the ran around to the front of the building, all they had to do was look up at the tops of the surrounding mountains to see dinosaurs of all types pouring over them and heading for the building below. Rockets tore themselves off the roof and over their heads before causing huge explosions in the countryside as trees and dinos went flying but still the armada pressed onwards. In front of the building, workers loaded into the remaining hummers and headed out into the jungle to bring the fight to the dinos personally. Jake wished he could go with him, but at such a critical time his place was here back at the base.

"You two should get to your posts," said Jake to his escort. They nodded and were about to go in different ways before Jake stopped them.

"Thanks for the assistance," said the scientist gratefully before remembering a line he'd heard from a movie once. "But stay frosty out there, we can't afford to let one of those bastards in here."

The workers nodded and left as Jake headed into the building. The few remaining workers were busy trying to get an accurate idea of what was going on in the valley by using radios and constantly jotting down notes on a big paper map unfurled on a nearby table.

"What're we looking at?" asked Jake to the group.

"As I told you," said one of the workers, Thomas as Jake recalled. "We're in the middle of a full on blitz."

"Did Sandy manage to escape being hemmed in?" asked Jake concerned. Thomas nodded.

"Yeah they got out of here in time," came the affirmative response. "They should be reaching the village in another hour or so. But we have bigger things to worry about at the moment."

Jake nodded as the ground shook from a nearby explosion flinging dirt and debris before shattering a few windows.

"Sorry, misfire," came a response over one of the radios from a worker on the roof.

"It's a wonder we don't blow ourselves up before they even get here," Jake grumbled.

"Well you essentially gave military-grade weaponry to a bunch of first graders who have no idea what to do besides aim and pull a trigger," said Thomas annoyed. "What did you expect, a team of hardened commandos?"

Jake blinked a couple times. "No."

"Then no offense Jake, but quit complaining," said Thomas firmly. "We need your leadership now, not your sarcasm."

"Fine," Jake agreed. "I'll be on the roof."

"Channel 7," said Thomas holding up his radio. Jake tapped his radio's antenna against his head and then out in a form of a salute before leaving the workers behind. He quickly made his way up to the roof where workers were facing off in different directions each firing their weapons at the hillsides.

"Alright, alright, alright!" Jake shouted. "Stop randomly shooting at things!"

The workers looked at him startled before stopping their assault.

"Shouldn't we be firing?" asked one of the workers.

"Yes but we don't have anywhere near enough ammo to kill them all," said Jake incredulously. "Instead have one worker focus on the dinos while the other aims in front of their advance. That way at least there's a chance they'll turn away or at least slow their advance. So the workers who are firing at the dinosaurs keep doing what you're doing but the workers aiming in front of the dinosaurs should only shoot every so often. We need to hold out for as long as possible and running out of ammo during the halfway point of their journey is not going to help us."

The workers nodded and resumed their assault on the dinosaurs. More and more explosions tore up the area around them in an ever decreasing circle around the building as the dinos continued advancing despite the heavy artillery being thrown against them.

"There's no way in hell we bred this many dinosaurs!" shouted Thomas over the radio as the dinos began to become visible from the front doors.

"I think we've blown up quite a few second-gen's is what's up," said Jake back into the radio as several of the teams ran out of ammo and picked up their assault cannons and went to the ground floor.

"Cannon fodder, great," snorted Thomas. "That's just what we need."

"At any rate, I think we've done all the good we can up here," said Jake as the hummers that had been sent out earlier returned with worn out and frazzled workers.

"Yeah I think so. The mines have been activated and the dinosaur army is approaching them now," said Thomas. Explosions were suddenly heard as the ground shook briefly as various mines went off outside. Jake finally got up and went downstairs as the workers who had originally vacated the roof returned with automatic weaponry that they trained on the jungle. As Jake arrived at the ground floor, he took out his Long Colt and proceeded out onto the front steps where Thomas was standing with his gun trained on the jungle.

"Looks like just us," said Jake humbly as more mines went off.

"Plus the guys on the roof," Thomas pointed out as he jerked his head back at the building.

"True dat, true dat," responded the scientist as he began twirling his gun around on his finger and practicing his quick draw.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" asked Thomas annoyed.

"Not yet I don't," responded Jake simply as he continued practicing. Suddenly a pachycephalosaurus appeared from the jungle and brayed at them.

"Okay now I do,"

Jake and Thomas opened fire. The dinosaur fell but soon more came pouring out of the woodworks, from triceratops to protoceratops to ankylosaurus and even a tyrannosaurus rex appeared roaring angrily at the building. Gunfire also rang down from above along with a few RPG shots that blasted dirt and dinosaurs, covering Jake, Thomas, and the front of the building in blood and guts. Thomas instantly went into convulsions but Jake just stood their firmly capping off round after round from his gun before stopping and reloading.

"You gonna be okay?" Jake asked Thomas before speaking into his headset. "CAC fire three degrees port."

"But-," came the response.

"Do it now!" Jake shouted. The glass from the door behind him exploded as a projectile erupted from inside the building and slammed into the tyrannosaurus rex causing it to collapse onto a bunch of smaller compys, squishing them flat. The explosion brought Thomas back to his senses and he swung up his rifle to blast away a pouncing gallimimus that was coming right at him.

"How can you be so calm about this?" asked Thomas.

"Well it wouldn't-," began Jake before the dinosaurs suddenly halted their advance.

"What the?" began Thomas went suddenly a chorus of hooting erupted from the jungle.

"Get inside!" shouted Jake with sudden realization as he grabbed Thomas and shoved him towards the building.

"What's going on?" Thomas demanded.

"Their cavalry just arrived," said Jake as they pushed into the lobby. "Everybody down!"

The workers crouched behind Stephanie's desk as globs of venom came flying in taking out windows, weapons, furniture, and anything else that wasn't secured to the ground. Then after a couple moments the venom globs stopped, apparently even dilophosaurs had to reload as well. The welcoming committee stood back up and returned fire but it was too little too late as a massive ankylosaur entered into the doorway and took the brunt of the fire as dinosaurs began emerging from around it.

"Fall back," said Jake bitterly even as some of the workers from the roof came down and began firing as well at the gallimimuses, dilophosaurs, compys, pachycephalosauruses, and whatever else flooded through the door.

"Where the hell are they?" Jake grumbled as he put in another six bullets into his gun.

"They're right there!" Thomas shouted at the dinos as they slowly approached the stairwell.

"I don't care about them! Where the hell are the velociraptors and deinonychosaurs?" demanded Jake. "They're not here so where?"

"They probably went up in that fire that's currently burning behind us, the one that is where our escape path is located," Thomas grumbled.

"Raptors aren't stupid so they wouldn't all be grouped in one area! They don't just attack from the front but from the sides!" said Jake. "So where are they?"

"Good question," said Thomas beginning to see his point. "I don't know."

Jake began looking around suspiciously until he noticed that the amount of workers around them had increased, thereby at least slowing the dinos assault even more.

"Wait! Who's on the roof?" demanded Jake. "Anybody?"

Thomas looked around. "Doesn't look like anybody, why?"

Several thuds were heard from the rafters.

"Well that answers that," said Jake. "They're on the roof."

"What now?" Thomas asked.

"Now we run before they hem us in," said Jake as he took off. As they raced past the steps leading to the roof, raptors appeared from above and slammed into the ground before chasing after the group. The team ran down the steps to the bottom floor where the egg incubators were kept as the workers down below continued shooting at the dinosaurs that leapt over the threshold and onto the floor. They smashed various pieces of Ingen equipment as the workers continued to fall back as smoke began pouring into the building from the fire behind them.

"C'mon we've got to get out of here before they flank us!" shouted Thomas coughing as he escaped through the Embryo Storage Chamber. Jake groaned angrily at the loss of yet another building to the dinosaurs before firing his rifle at a tank holding a dead fetus causing it to explode and take out the raptor behind it before he too ducked into the room. An instant the door was shut and locked from the inside as the dinosaurs outside continually pounded against it. The remaining workers who had managed to survive the assault made their way through the various embryo storage freezers as they went to the door on the far end that had been built as a result of Project HSWS.

"Funny how in less than a minute we've gone from the end result of the project to the beginnings of it," said Thomas grinning as he breathed out a mist of vapors from the coldness of the storage room.

"Just makes you want to lash out at the innocent doesn't it?" asked Jake as he swung his Long Colt around and aimed at one of the cylinders before pulling on the trigger and hearing the gun click empty.

"Hmmm," he said with a grin as he briefly laughed before walking out the other door which was promptly closed and locked.

"How long do you think they'll keep pounding on that door before they give up?" asked Thomas.

"It doesn't really matter, I'm sure their buddies are probably circling the building anyway," said Jake as the duo emerged into a garage where the other workers were boarding various hummers and other vehicles. Jake walked past all of them only to get into a tanker truck and turn on the ignition.

"You seriously expect to outrun the dinos in this?" asked Thomas incredulously.

"No," said Jake as he took out a tire jack from the passenger's seat and clamped it onto the steering wheel. "But I do intend to distract them. When are you planning on opening the door?"

"Now," said Thomas simply as the garage door began rising.

"Then stand clear," said Jake as he dropped the brick and leapt out of the truck. The vehicle rumbled down the road where it was immediately descended upon by raptors from the roof and a pair of ankylosaurs who instantly began bashing the vehicle with their tails. At that moment the convoy of vehicles also came rushing out of the building only to make a hard right and went straight off into the burning jungle. A couple of the dinos realized they'd been duped and raced after the convoy but they were too late as it vanished into the rising flames.

"So where're we falling back to?" asked Jake looking at the map.

"The Workers Village," responded Thomas bluntly. Jake opened his mouth to protest, but Thomas quickly explained himself.

"We either lost or used up most of our ammunition during the past three weeks. We also lost a good chunk of whatever weapons we had left trying to put up that last stand, that's not so good either. We need to get back to the Workers Village, reequip ourselves, and then rush back out there to confront the advancing dinos. We can also replace some of the more fatigued workers with the more rested workers in the village. At any rate we'll loose less ground this way than if we tried to mount a vain defense with what we have," said the worker. "Plus we might get a better idea on the affairs of the rest of the island and the world in general."

"Yeah I guess you're right," Jake relented as the vehicles began heading uphill and Embryonics Administration became visible surrounded by flames and the silhouettes of dinosaurs each burning brightly in the nighttime sky.

"I'm gonna miss that place," said Jake mournful. "I spent the best and worst years of my life there."

"Yeah I know what you mean," Thomas agreed. "I used to supervise and maintain the automated food processing facilities on the southern tip of the island, sure it was monotonous but I still enjoyed the silence. Now I'm sure that was probably one of the first places to fall if those dinos were lysine mad. Some silence sure sounds awfully good right about now."

"I hear that," said Jake nodding before a dinosaur roar pierced the nighttime sky causing Jake to roll his eyes.

"And that."

Thomas chuckled as the convoy moved onwards down the path back towards the Workers Village.


	23. The Army of Dimetrodons

Workers Village: A pair of workers was guarding the entrance to the village as others patrolled around the inside of the perimeter fence looking for any signs of movement. Up above the clouds were heavily overcast, but didn't look threatening.

"I hate this waiting," said the first worker, Collin, as he shakily held his rifle.

"I hear that," said the other worker, Catreece, as she stood next to him looking out into the jungle. "It's so creepy out here."

"Yeah, it'll nice to get a reality check when we finally go home," agreed Collin shivering. A roar erupted from the jungle startling them both.

"This is Catreece, we've got incoming," said the terrified worker into her radio. Collin snapped off the safety of his rifle and swung it towards the jungle as a pair of workers appeared on both sides of him.

"Got it," Gerry Harding confirmed. "I'm sending more workers to assist."

"Better hurry-aaahh!" shouted Catreece as she covered her eyes. A pair of bright lights suddenly emanated from the jungle blinding the team as a loud noise was heard coming closer and closer.

"Steady," said Gerry over the radio. "I'm on my way."

The four workers were then joined by others as a loud crashing began filling the depression that the village was in.

"There must be a thousand of them out there!" said Catreece in shock.

"Be reasonable, this island can't support that many dinos!" snapped Collin. "And calm down, you're my fidgety than my cat."

Catreece was about to respond when a massive tree came crashing down right in front of them and a large object appeared from behind it.

"Fire!" shouted Collin.

"No!" said Gerry appearing through the front gates. "Stand down."

"But-," began Collin pointing to the bright lights.

"What exactly could make a light like that?" asked Gerry mockingly. "Because it's no dinosaur I've every heard of."

"Oh," said Collin as Catreece began nervously laughing. Collin glared at her as Catreece suddenly gasped. Gerry just shook his head as the advancing figure that had knocked over the tree came to a halt. Instantly a pair of shadowy figures appeared from the sides and advanced towards the group of workers.

"Jake, Thomas," Gerry acknowledged with a tip of his head.

"Hey Gerry, long time no see," said Jake with a grin before he advanced into the village as a light rain began to fall. Thomas also gave him an acknowledgement before turning around and waving his hands in. A group of heavily damaged vehicles appeared from the jungle and rumbled into the village before the gate was closed again leaving Collin and Catreece with nothing left to do but argue with each other over what had happened. Jake, Gerry, and Thomas just continued walking in silence towards the Operations Building only to enter into it and head immediately for the amphitheatre. The trio entered into it only to spot Sam sitting in one of the seats.

"Hey guys," said Sam. Jake nodded and sat down on the stage before rubbing his head vigorously before growling.

"That bad huh?" asked Gerry handing Jake some water sitting down.

"Like you wouldn't believe," said Jake before he down the water in one gulp and wiped off his lips with his sleeve.

"We barely made it back in one piece," Thomas explained. "We got attacked multiple times along our route back from roving gangs of dinosaurs and dinged up all of our vehicles very badly. And let's just say it took some original thinking to get elude them in order to permanently escape."

"What did you do?" asked Gerry bewildered.

"You know the place where Geothermal Station 3 was?" asked Thomas. "Well it's a crater now."

"I guess there goes any chance of charging up the fences again," Gerry mused. "Still though, I'm sure the dinos that were chasing you were probably wiped out."

"Yeah. It's just too bad they're all working together against us," Thomas admitted.

"Well except for the dimetrodons," Jake pointed out. "They just can't seem to make any friends."

"Is that relevant?" asked Gerry confused.

"Maybe," Jake responded. "Right now they seem to be the only allies we have available to us. The enemy of the enemy so to speak."

"You think they can help us?" asked Sam. "They don't seem like much of an ally to me."

Jake picked up his radio. "Logan can you get in here?"

"On my way J," came the response. Jake nodded and put down the radio.

"He should be able to give us a second opinion," Jake explained.

"So how long did you hold out?" asked Thomas to Sam.

"A week," Sam snorted. "How pathetic is that?"

"Considering you had to go against the larger carnivores not as much as you might think," Jake responded. "At least you held out for as long as you did, ever minute counts. This is why me and whatever workers I can take with me need to quickly reload and get back out there and keep fighting."

Gerry was about to response when Logan walked in.

"What's up?"

"Sit down, we need your opinion on something," said Jake.

"Uh-oh," said Logan with a laugh. "That can't be good."

"We just need your opinion on the dimetrodons," said Thomas. "Do you think they can help us against these other dinosaurs?"

Logan just stared at him.

"Under what circumstances?" asked the scientist confused.

"We're thinking about letting some loose on the advancing armada and seeing if they can at least slow them down," said Jake. "We just want your opinion on what would happen if we did let some loose around here."

"Well it stands to reason they'd go after the advancing dinosaurs once they learned they couldn't get in here. The dimetrodons love a challenge and will take on anything larger than themselves to prove their superiority. But do you really want to unleash such a deadly threat so close to home? They're probably worse than anything else on this island," said Logan reserved.

"Yeah, after all J you're the one who keeps warning us to always be wary of the dimetrodons," Gerry pointed out. "And all of this speculation is avoiding the real question, how the hell are we supposed to even get them here?"

"I know how," said Jake. "And it doesn't even involve us leaving this village."

"How?" demanded Gerry before his eyes went wide with realization. "You can't be serious."

"We are scientists," Jake pointed out. "And right now acting like commandos hasn't helped us out that much. Maybe our callings may be able to help us out for once."

"Look I may not be a scientist, but shouldn't it take at least several weeks if not months to breed a fully developed dino?" asked Thomas confused.

"Yes, but you also have to remember that Ingen is a conglomerate. They need a profit in order to survive," said Sam knowing where this was leading. "So naturally they made a park to show off their assets and provide those profits. But let's say one of your assets suddenly dies off? What do you do? In a normal zoo you quickly replenish your missing asset with a new one from somewhere else. But when you're assets died off millions of years ago you kind of don't have many options. You could wait for your supplier to create a new one, but that could potentially take months and you'd be loosing an incredible amount of profit. _Or_ you could come up with a way of instantly producing said missing product though with a greatly reduced life span. This product would have to constantly be replaced while the permanent substitute was being created, but ultimately the visitors would never know and you'd have avoided a major financial loss."

"And you guys came up with a way to do that?" asked Thomas astounded.

"Yep," said Jake with a grin. "Course we never actually put it to use, but it's all ready."

"Project Quickie-Clone," said Gerry with a grin. "I still think that name was stupid."

"Then you shouldn't have had Catreece name it," Jake shot back. "Anyway we should be able to make at least twelve dimetrodons in the next 24 hours. Course they'll burn out in about 5 days, but we can easily make more in the meantime."

"But we'll need to watch our power consumption," Gerry pointed out. "This is going to take a large chunk out of our remaining reserves."

"Either way we're in enough trouble that I doubt this could make it any worse," Sam said.

"Then it's settled, we make 'em," said Jake getting up finally glad to be taking action. "But I at least want a team out there to keep slowing down the dinos."

"I'll lead it," Thomas offered. "I'm no scientist."

"I'll go too," said Sam. "I need to get out of here and see a change of scenery even if it is a bloody one."

As the workers got up to leave Sandy ran in out of breath.

"We've had a fax come in!" she shouted. She handed the paper to Jake before slumping down into one of the chairs.

"Attention remaining scientists on Ingen's Site B. This is John Brown of Pacific Pharmaceuticals. Recently Ingen has come to realize that keeping you on that island is no longer 'financially sound', I take it you know the connotations behind that reasoning, so they have authorized my company to begin evacuating your island. Unfortunately it'll take me at least a week to even get the necessary equipment to the island and another week or so to get all of you off and back to Costa Rica. Just stick tight for the moment and just as a heads up, there's a hurricane heading your way and should hit during the end of the evacuation. John Brown," said Jake reading the letter. "Well that's just great."

He threw the letter away disgusted as Sam picked it up.

"Guess they decided we're worth less alive to them than dead," Gerry said bitterly. "And that's accounting for all the losses we've already received too."

"And they won't even bother to spend money rescuing us," said Jake equally annoyed. "Well we'd better resume our original course of action, getting overjoyed and ready to leave isn't going to stop the dinos from still trying to tear us to shreds."

The rest nodded apprehensively before heading out of the auditorium.

"What should I do?" asked Logan following them.

"You're the only other expert on dimetrodons on this island except for Jake so you should stay here for when release them," said Gerry.

"Well then we'll get going," said Sam as he took out his radio. "All workers itching to get another shot in at the dinos meet me at the parking garage."

Then the two groups split ways.

"I hope I remember how to make a dinosaur," Jake confessed. "It's been at least six months since I've tried. As strange as it sounds to say this: I'm out of practice."

"And how many other people in the world can say that?" said Gerry knowingly. "Not many."

"Life's a bitch," said Jake as the two entered the genetics laboratory wing of the Operations Building.

"Can you do this even with our help?" Gerry asked. "I'm more of a veterinarian than a scientist."

"Yeah and I'm just a behavioral scientist, not a geneticist," Logan pointed out.

"We should be fine," said Jake assuredly. "And Gerry you're selling yourself short on the scientist end."

"Yeah I guess I am," said the veterinarian with a laugh. "I guess I did do more with Project DRP than I care to admit."

"So let's get cracking," said Jake as he cracked his knuckles. "Logan if you could get the embryo."

"Right," said the worker walking off. He approached the embryo storage chambers at the far side of the room and opened one of them.

"What happens if I accidentally pull the wrong one?" Logan asked cheekily. "Mistakes have been made."

"Let's just put it this way. If you pull the dipolodicus and we Quickie-Clone it, it'll destroy half the building. And if you pull the dilophosaurus, then we won't have long to realize our mistake when we drown in a flood venom globs," said Jake. "So don't screw up."

"Right," said Logan swallowing hard. He found the dimetrodon slot and took out a pellet. "How many do you need?"

"Twelve," answered Jake. "Although we could quick flash it onto the other specimens no problem thanks to this particular cloning process, better safe than sorry. Normal cloning though definitely requires separate embryos."

"Which of course is a contradiction in terms given that they're all pretty much the same specimen anyway," said Gerry as he began powering up the various devices in the room. Outside the lights began flickering in the village.

"That's normal, the fences should still stay powered," said Gerry into his radio. "Right, Tim?"

"There's a one percent drop off but that's about it," responded the technician over the radio. "Course I had to shut off power to most of the buildings here in order to do that."

"Yeah, yeah," said Jake over the radio. "How about my computer program?"

"Up and running for the past couple weeks now," Tim responded.

"Excellent," said Jake as he began prepping the maturation chamber. "The pellets please."

Logan handed them to him and Jake placed the twelve embryos in a slot on the side of the device. He then walked over to a freezer on the left side and opened it up revealing several ostrich eggs. He, Logan, and Gerry began transferring the eggs into the chamber until twelve were lined up before he shut the device closed. Jake then pressed a red button on the side of the chamber and it began powering up.

"And away we go," said Jake as he flipped on a computer and began examining the results as outside a group of vehicles departed heading for the front lines.

Costa Rica: A massive Osprey Helicopter appeared overhead before landing on a pad just outside Pacific Pharmaceuticals.

"Excellent, we're slightly ahead of schedule," said John Brown. "Just a few more to go and we should be able to begin evacuating the island."

"It should probably be soon," said Kevin Steele, on loan from Ingen. "That hurricane isn't going any slower."

"Yeah," said John looking out at the ocean, which was still calm for the moment.

"I hope things aren't going to hell over there," John admitted.

"Oh I think they are," said Kevin knowingly as he too looked out to the sea. "I think they are."

Morning: A heavily exhausted Jake Whitacre collapsed on his keyboard as the screen finally read: Quickie-Cloning Complete.

"And we only lost one specimen," said the scientist yawning. "All in all not too bad."

In ten crates behind him were the unconscious forms of several adult dimetrodons. He then collapsed and fell asleep as a well rested Logan entered with a group of workers and loaded the newly formed dimetrodon into another cage before hauling the eleven cages out of there.

"Watch out for Gerry," said Logan as the team walked around the second unconscious worker who was holding a syringe in his hands that was half-full of iodine. The dinos were immediately carted into a semi-truck outside which quickly moved out into the island. After only an hours drive, they reached the front lines where several vehicles were slowly backing up through the jungle as the workers aimed at a group of stegosaurus that were making their way through the jungle towards them.

"Alright give us some cover," said Logan into his mic. Sam and Thomas nodded as the various vehicles ceased their movement and the workers began firing more intensely than ever. Logan and the workers that came with him quickly began offloading the cages out of the truck until they were all setting on the ground in a row.

"Alright let's go!" shouted Logan as the vehicles rumbled off. The stegosaurus looked confused at the cages as a trio of velociraptors appeared and roared up at the stegosaurs in confusion before a series of mechanical noises was heard. Each dinosaur watched with trepidation as each lock popped off one by one down the row. The cages immediately opened and a series of roars erupted from them. The stegosaurs and velociraptors reared backed in confusion before turning and running as eleven shimmering objects burst from the cages and chased after them. A few miles away, the fleeing team heard the angry roars of the dinosaurs.

"I hope this works out into our favor," said Thomas. "Because if those dimetrodons manage to wipe out the nearby would be attackers, then they're going to come straight for us."

"I guess it's just a case of better the devil you know," said Logan. "Better the devil you know."

The convoy vanished into the jungle.


	24. The Lost World vs Site B

Anguirus111 Note: Whenever Jake refers to 'John' he's referring to John Brown. If it was John Hammond, he'd simply say Hammond.

Sorna: The sun rose over the island and reflected off of the dewdrops and puddles from the previous day's rain. Peace settled over the island before a pair of bushes began rustling. Instantly they parted and Steviesaurus tore through with a squawk at getting itself wet.

"It's only water," said Jake emerging moments later from the jungle along with Stephanie Sandelder. "You're acting like its acid or something."

"She's still on a learning curve," said Stephanie. "This is her first time outdoors since you created her. You have to expect some growing pains."

"Hooray," said Jake nonplussed. "That's just what I need, another you."

"Oh hush, you're as bad as she is," said Stephanie lightly hitting him on the shoulder.

"You know I think we've should've waited for the crews to verify that all the fences are in one piece," said Jake looking around. "Who knows what might've gotten loose in that storm last night."

"There's nothing out here you kook," said Stephanie looking at the surrounding jungle as they emerged into a large meadow full of flowers with light streaming down from above.

"Isn't it beautiful?" asked Stephanie mesmerized. Jake grinned despite himself.

"Yeah I guess it is," he said finally.

"And to think that this part of the island has probably never been disturbed since the dawn of time," said Stephanie. "We're probably the first humans to ever see it."

"But the survey-," began Jake before Stephanie held a finger to his lips to silence him.

"Enjoy this moment," said Stephanie softly as she faced into the jungle. "It may never come again."

Jake nodded and Stephanie lowered her hand and two stood there in one timeless moment listening to the sounds of the birds chirping. But then it was all silenced by an angry roar from the trees as a group of birds went flying sky high.

"Get back," said Jake yanking out his Long Colt and aimed it at the far wall of the trees. He pushed Stephanie behind him as he fumbled for his radio.

"Where's Steviesaurus?" asked Stephanie looking about frantically before she felt a nudging against her leg. The protoceratops was rubbing against her leg nervously until she picked her up and stroked the creature's back to calm it down.

"What do you think it is?" asked Stephanie nervously.

"I don't know, but I don't want to stick around to find out," said Jake slowly leading them away from the meadow. "Let's go."

But before they could leave, the crashing sound grew louder and louder and trees began falling down left and right in the distance. Then an object tore itself from the jungle as Stephanie screamed…

…As a hummer smashed into the meadow as lightning bolts went rocketing by overhead coupled with a heavy rainstorm. The front edge of Hurricane Clarissa had found its way to the island and was now battering it relentlessly causing the dinos to become even more agitated in their attempts to reach the center of the island as evidenced by the pair of Tyrannosaurs on their tail.

"This is Jake in Sector 42 and we've got a pair of T-Rexes on our tail," said Jake into his radio as the vehicle drove into a large area of mud and slid across it. Jake was sitting in the passenger's seat as a couple of workers in the back had opened the back trunk and were shooting M-16's at the beasts. But thanks to the vehicles constant rocking back and forth along with the wind and rain pouring in they were being less than successful at it.

"Roger that," said Gerry on the other end. "Aerial Unit is responding."

"We'll keep 'em occupied here," said Jake into the radio before turning it off and facing Sam in the driver's seat.

"Loop us around," Jake said making a circling motion with his hand. "We'll stall them until aerial gets here."

"Can't we just keep moving?" asked Sam. "It's not like they're too small to be noticed."

"I'm hoping we can attract more unwanted attention to be wiped out," Jake explained. "The more dinos that congregate here the less will be attacking the evacuees."

"Aahh," said Sam nodding. "Good idea. I just hope the elements don't get to us first."

With that statement a lightning bolt when rocketing by directly overhead and smashed into the ground throwing dirt and dust everywhere.

"Man this Clarissa is one nasty bitch," commented one of the workers in the back as he reloaded his rifle as the two Rexes roared angrily in the background despite the wind and rain. The rear wheels of the hummer suddenly slipped and the vehicle did a 720 before gaining purchase and shooting off, narrowly avoiding a nasty bite from one of the rexes.

"That was something I have no desire of doing again," said Jake trying to calm his queasy stomach.

"Me neither," said Sam glancing nervously at the rearview mirror displaying the rexes. At that moment a thumping noise was heard over the roar of the storm.

"Friend or foe?" asked Sam, his eyes darting to Jake. The scientist looked out the window.

"Friend," he said with a grin. Two Blackhawk helicopters appeared above the trees with the storm raging fiercely around them before unleashing a pair of missiles that struck the rexes, blowing large chunks of their bodies off before the pair dropped dead.

"Gotta hand it to John," said Jake approvingly. "He does come prepared."

The pair of helicopters moved off before firing another pair of missiles into the distance resulting in a pair of large explosions rising into the sky. It had been three days since Pacific Pharmaceuticals had arrived with evacuation helicopters to get the personnel off the island before Clarissa smashed it to pieces, and a week and a half since releasing the initial dimetrodons. However along with the helicopters, the CEO had also had an accompaniment of military helicopters along for the ride. There was never any explanation for where they came from and Jake didn't much care, any damage he could give the dinos the better, and so they'd been instrumental in taking out the larger beasts on the island. Still, the smaller ones, like the velociraptor, could easily live underneath the tree level and were free to pursue their own ends. For that, the dimetrodon quickie-clones were still the best option, albeit a still incredibly dangerous one. Sam moved the hummer out of the heavily damaged meadow and onto a dirt road as a black semi-truck took up a position directly in front of it. The back of the trailer was open and they saw a couple of workers, illuminated by the occasional flash of lightning behind them, pointing frantically to their rear. The quartet in the hummer looked through the open back to see a mass of smaller dinosaurs chasing after them on the road. Upfront the workers in the back of the semi slid out a ramp that smacked down behind the semi before slowly sliding a massive silver cage to it and holding it just in front of the ramp. The workers looked at the hummer with humility before Jake motioned his hand towards them.

"Hope your driving is up to spec Sam," said Jake with a grin before patting him on the back.

"Oh I hate this part," Sam groaned. The cage was shoved down the ramp and the hummer swerved to avoid it as the cage popped open and a dimetrodon scurried out towards the dino armada. As that happened, the hummer swerved to avoid another cage coming out of the truck and ended up scrapping some of the trees on the side of the road as yet another dimetrodon popped loose and snapped at whatever dinos it could that swarmed past it. More cages came flying out the back and slammed into the mud flinging it everywhere and all over the windshield of the hummer. By the time the mud was wiped away, the Hummer found itself facing a solid mud embankment on the side of the road.

"Oh shi-," began Jake as he crouched beneath the dash. The hummer hit it head on before it went airborne and did a complete barrel roll in the air before slamming down on its wheels on the other side of the road and continued forward down the road.

"Oh there goes my lunch," said Jake as he grabbed a nearby bag and threw up into it. But given that he hadn't eaten much in the past few days he primarily just dry vomited into it. The two workers in the back also looked the worse for wear, but like Jake they hadn't eaten much lately either and just dry vomited as well.

"You okay Sam?" Jake asked.

"I gotta get off this road," said Sam as he hands began nervously trembling from shock. "I can't keep this up for much longer, I'm too tired to keep going."

Jake nodded and looked forward to see the back of the semi with its ramp still being dragged behind on the ground and the shocked workers inside motioning their hands forward.

"Forward," said Jake.

"Forward?" asked Sam confused.

"Right into the beast's mouth," said Jake pointing at the truck.

"Oh you can't be serious," said Sam disbelieving him.

"Hit the accelerator," Jake ordered. "Or else I'll do it, and that'll just look awkward."

"Right," said Sam fighting to stay awake as the vehicle began lazily drifting along the road. The vehicle then surged forward towards the ramp and hit it causing the vehicle to shake before heading straight up and into the back of the trailer. The workers who were in the back of it walked over the hood and roof of the vehicle and retracted the ramp before taking their weapons and began firing at the remaining dino horde behind them. Jake and the two workers emerged out of the back of the hummer and joined them in offing the dinosaurs that they could. Eventually the dinos began tiring and dropped behind as the semi-truck vanished into the distance. The workers inside breathed a sigh of relief before shutting the rear doors of the trailer and slumping down inside exhausted.

"Thanks for the lift," said Jake to the truck workers as he opened the barrel of his Long Colt and drained the water from it.

"This isn't free," said a worker. "You have to pay us a fare."

Jake began laughing as did the other workers before Jake took out his radio and flipped it on.

"Gerry?" asked Jake.

"Yo," came the response.

"How much longer?" asked Jake.

"Three hours," said Gerry.

"Oy," said Jake. "And how much longer until they overrun the Village?"

"Three hours," said Gerry. "The same goes for how long it'll take us to finish evacuating."

"Well that's just great," said Jake annoyed. "Well we're coming your way see you soon."

"Roger. Oh, you got a priority message from Peter Ludlow about something or other," said Gerry.

"About what?" Jake asked but didn't get a response. "Gerry? Gerry?"

Jake checked his radio and found it was dead so he flung it away in disgust.

"Piece of junk," he said aggravated.

"Considering none of this stuff has been serviced in six months it's hardly a surprise they've stopped working," said Sam crawling out the back of the hummer. "That and just about every facility around here has been damaged or destroyed in some way or another."

"I wonder how we're ever going to explain this to the outside world," Jake said.

"What's to explain?" asked a worker. "We left they took over, end of story."

"We've left too much evidence behind," said Jake. "Anybody who comes here could blatantly see what really happened here."

"And so what if they do?" asked a worker. "They have no right to judge us."

"I know that," said Jake. "But it won't stop them from doing it anyway."

The other workers nodded and each sat there in silence as the truck continued onwards towards the village.

Village: Workers were being herded through the wind and rain towards the Operations Building by armed guards as various helicopters took off and landed from the platform above the building. Above the village was a pair of Tiger Helicopters holding up a defensive position in the event of any early unwelcome guests as lightning flashed all around them accompanied by the booming thunder.

"Quickly, quickly," said Thomas as he helped in the ushering of people up the stairs to the helipad. A loud roar was heard and Thomas tore his head upwards as a pair of Hornets roared close by overhead and unleashed a payload of missiles before vanishing into the cloudy sky. In the distance explosions tore up the jungle in the distance as dinosaur roars faintly began echoing into the village. The remaining workers began shivering nervously as they ascended the stairs before Thomas was joined by Gerry.

"How much time?" Thomas shouted over the storm.

"An hour and a half," Gerry responded. "And it's going to be close."

"Where's Jake?" asked Thomas.

"Should be here soon, I talked to him about an hour or so ago and he said he was inbound," said Gerry. At that statement a pair of headlights beamed into the village as a semi-truck entered into the village. It stopped in the middle of the main road as a ramp extended from the back trailer as a hummer reversed out of it before stopping on the ground and moved off towards the Operations Building.

"That'll be him," said Gerry heading out. "Keep the peace."

"Right," said Thomas sarcastically as he began motioning people up the stairs. "C'mon people keep it moving!"

Gerry advanced towards the front entrance as the mud soaked hummer rolled across the bridge above the moat and roared up the stairs until it stopped in front of the doors. Jake and Sam emerged into the blinding rain with the other couple workers as they advanced into the building past the line of workers. Jake as he ran his hand through his hair spraying water everywhere as Gerry appeared.

"Hey Gerry," said Jake.

"Guys," the veterinarian acknowledged.

"My office," said Jake pointing onward with his gun as the duo followed suit. They entered into it and Jake closed the door before flopping down in his seat.

"It's bad out there huh?" asked Gerry looking at Sam and Jake's fatigued looks.

"You could so say so yes," said Jake. "But that's hardly anything new. You mentioned something from Pete?"

"Yeah," said Gerry pulling out an envelope and handing it to Jake. "It came in on the first helicopter."

Jake nodded and took his switchblade which he flicked out and cut the envelope before taking out a sheet of paper that was inside.

"Destroy all evidence in regards to Project ELE-Peter Ludlow," said Jake as he tossed the paper onto his desk. "Well that required an envelope."

Gerry picked it up and looked at it.

"And he couldn't have told us sooner?" asked Sam resting on Jake's couch. "We can't get to the Hammond Research Center from here, not with that army out there."

"Yeah but I'll do it anyway," said Jake getting up.

"What?" shouted Gerry. "You can't go out there! We're leaving! Clarissa is about to pound this place to a pulp, the evidence will vanish!"

"I don't want to risk someone ever finding out about it," said Jake. "The ramifications are astronomical."

"You'll die!" said Sam.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," said Jake. "And I'm going alone."

"Fine," said Gerry disgusted. At that there was a knock at the door.

"In," said Jake as he snatched the paper back from Gerry and buried it in his inbox. Tim opened the door and hovered near the entrance.

"I just wanted to say I'm taking off," he said. "Everything is running autonomously right now and if it fails, it fails."

"Thanks for everything," said Jake getting up and shaking his hand. "Listen about my program."

"It'll run as long as there's power," said Tim. "And the computers _should_ still stay online for quite awhile it's just that we've cut power to everything else to ensure that."

"How long do you think it'll be before the geothermal generators store up enough power to properly power this place again?" Gerry asked.

"Give or take four years I guess," said Tim unsure. "Maybe longer, it really depends on the vents and what exactly will be left around here that can still be powered up."

"Right," said Jake with a grin. "Well thanks again, we'll see you around."

"Right," said Tim laughing. "Maybe in 65 Million Years when dinosaurs inadvertently clone humans and we rebel against them."

"Probably," said Jake nodding. "Later."

Tim waved and with that he was gone and his position was replaced by someone else.

"Hi guys," said a person with a grin. Jake, Sam, and Gerry looked at the individual wide-eyed as Henry Wu entered into the room and sat down on the remaining chair.

"Henry?" asked Jake in shock.

"Yeah," said Henry. "What's up?"

"It's good to see you," said Jake deadpan at a loss for words.

"Thanks," came the response. "I figured I should enjoy one last moment on this island before it went to hell."

"Yeah," said Jake. "Anyway I'll be back."

"Where're you going?" asked Henry confused.

"Just some loose ends I need to tie up," said Jake and with that he was gone.

"Hmmm. Oh well, anybody want to show me around, it's been awhile since I was last here and I was curious if anything has changed," said the scientist with a grin. Gerry and Sam looked at each other nervously before clearing their throats.

"Right," said Gerry. "Just this way…"

Meadow: Stephanie laughed as Jake sat there aggravated. Around them a group of brachiosaurs stood around the meadow enjoying themselves in the sunny air as Steviesaurus bounded around happily amongst the flowers.

"Oh come on, it was funny," said Stephanie. "You standing there all macho and ready to defend me. It was cute."

"Cute, blech," said Jake pretending to gag.

"I find it reassuring that you'll go to great lengths to protect me and my baby," said Stephanie as he grabbed Steviesaurus and held her close.

"Whatever you say Zelda," said Jake. Stephanie sighed.

"Link?" asked Stephanie.

"Yeah?" asked Jake.

"Can it," Stephanie responded. "Just enjoy yourself for once, it may never come again."

"I don't know about that," Jake siad. "After all, Nublar is finally going to receive its first guests in a month; I think things'll finally calm down around here."

"Maybe," said Stephanie. "When it does open, you'll take me there right?"

Jake looked into the distance as images of Jeffrey's death flashed in his mind.

"I don't know," he said. "But if you want me to, I will."

"Thanks," said Stephanie as she lay on the ground. "And you're right, things will slow down here and then…who knows?"

"Yeah," Jake agreed as the sun rose high above them. "Who knows?"

Village: A hummer left the outer gates and vanished into the darkened jungle as lightning flashed by overhead as Hurricane Clarissa angrily made its way towards the island.


	25. Sorna Falls

Anguirus111 Note: I may write an epilogue to this story, I'm not sure yet. And yeah I changed the title of this piece so sue me. Though of course I don't own the JP license so you'll get nothing in relation to it, ha ha.

Sorna: Jake drove away from the Workers Village as in the background more helicopters were seen coming and going. The scientist drove in silence as rain continued pouring in droves from the clouds while each flash of lightning seemed to illuminate some object that seemed like a dinosaur but in actuality was either just a tree or rock outcropping. Jake just breathed in and out deeply as he wiped the sweat from his forward as he proceeded further south of the Village.

Village: Henry Wu was lead down the various hallways of the main building by Gerry Harding as the line of workers continued streaming through the hallway.

"I really don't know what to show you," said Gerry helplessly. "It's not like there's anything new around here."

"I know," said Henry. "But I had to see it one last time."

"I guess I can understand," said Logan following them. "Though entering into the path of a hurricane is a little…rash."

"Meh," said Henry. "I used to make dinosaurs so rational choices went out the window long ago."

"You ever regret what you did?" asked Gerry, trying to determine the differences between Henry and Jake.

"No," said Henry. "But…I don't know, maybe we should've taken our time and not bowed down to Hammond's wishes."

"Jake felt similarly," Gerry acknowledged. "What with the West African Frog debacle."

"Did you guys manage to prove whether or not that was possible?" asked Henry as he popped in a stick of gum and began chewing on it.

"When we did some tests on a trip to Indigo they came up inconclusive but considering the amount of dinos we've encountered on this island…I don't see how they couldn't have," said Gerry as he accepted a piece of gum from Henry.

"So…what's with all the heavy artillery?" asked Henry innocently as a pair of Apache's went rumbling overhead.

"Well as I'm sure you're well aware the fences have failed, we need any protection we can get from the dinosaurs," Gerry said. "After all there's an armada on their way here."

"And why would the dinos be coming here?" asked Henry leaning against the massive black door that lead to the autopsy room.

"Some need meat, we're meat," said Gerry quickly.

"And it wouldn't have anything to do with that's behind me?" asked Henry lightly tapping his head against the door. Gerry dropped his head.

"Fuck," he said rubbing his eyes. Henry flashed a grinned.

"Can I see inside?" he asked. Gerry shrugged.

"Might as well," he said as he went to the keypad. "How did you know?"

"Rumors mostly then I heard a brief mention of ELE and then all the pieces fell into place," said Henry crossing his arms.

"Who else knows?" asked Gerry as the door slid open.

"Just the Board, the non-Sorna workers have no clue," responded the scientist. The door finished opening and Henry stepped inside as he waved his hands to clear away the stench from his nose. He looked at the rotting cadavers that were strong up around the room as he passed between them before reaching a computer terminal and flipping it on. He read through the data before musing it over.

"You figure out why the lysine contingency failed?" Henry called as he glanced over the edge of the screen back at Gerry who was hanging in the doorway.

"No," said Gerry snapping out of his reverie of Henry not caring about the contents of the room. He walked over with Logan to the console and both hovered over it.

"Jake suspected Hammond tried to pull a fast one on us, but the dinosaurs 'revolted' before we could find out," said Gerry. The building suddenly shook from a massive boom outside and the lights briefly dimmed before coming back on.

"And with Clarissa bearing down on us I don't think we'll ever got the chance," said Thomas as some drops of water began pouring in through the ceiling. Gerry nodded in agreement before Henry turned towards the corpses, deep in thought after having his interest piqued.

"How long until it's too late to leave?" he asked. Gerry consulted his watch.

"45 minutes. Any longer than that and you're…extinct I guess would be the word," said Gerry. "Why?"

Henry grabbed a box of surgical gloves and snapped one on.

"Plenty of time," he said moving towards a hanging cadaver of a pachycephalosaus which he pushed on its chain along its track and over to a nearby operating bed. He hit a button and the corpse crashed down onto the bed before Henry took out a second glove and put it on. Still chewing his gum he picked up a pair of foreceps and a bonesaw and looked at the corpse before turning to Gerry and Logan.

"You gonna help or not?" he asked. Gerry and Logan looked at each other before rushing to help him as more lightning flashes of lightning were seen outside accompanied by the hail of rocket fire from the airborne forces around them.

"I hope Jake's okay," said Gerry as he looked at his watch. "He should be there by now."

Hammond Research Center: Jake's hummer pulled into the parking lot of the building as Jake hopped out and yanked out his Long Colt before spinning it around on his finger and capping off a couple shots to take out a pair of leaping velociraptors before he ran into the building as another pair of raptors bounded over the vehicle and chased after him. The scientist leapt through the doorway and fired a couple more rounds behind before he slammed the door shut and the raptors smashed into the plate glass window and fell to the ground. Rather than risk blowing out the only windows that could withstand those creature's assaults, Jake proceeded further down the darkened hallway to the center of the building. Grabbing his flashlight he flipped it on to reveal severe damage along his path that was probably caused from small arms fire and seismic survey charges.

"God Sam you really did a number on this place," said Jake as he stepped over a piece of the collapsed ceiling. He continued down the corridor when he heard a creaking noise behind him. The scientist spun around and aimed at sound but nothing came of it. The scientist lowered his gun and proceeded further into the building before emerging in a massive open room that contained rows and rows of genetic testing equipment and computers. Jake calmly walked down the steps and onto the ground floor before walking over to a bin and reaching inside of it. After a couple moments of searching he finally found what he was looking forward and pulled out a piece of amber with a mosquito buried in it.

"This is what it all came down to didn't it?" he asked of the thing. "You getting stuffed on blood and getting stuck in tree sap. Nature simply dealt you a bad hand and nothing but a simple act would lead to having lasting repercussions. Now once again nature is turning on us wanting to kill us for simply being who we are. Ironic isn't it?"

The piece of amber did not respond and Jake briefly chuckled before getting ready to throw the thing against a wall, but he stopped himself.

"No, no we're both going to survive this. To hell with Mother Nature and her so called 'plan'," he said bitterly to the thing as he put the amber mosquito into a pocket on his jacket and walked over to a small device that had a large amount of wires trailing out of it. Jake flipped the device on and a string of numbers rushed past the LED screen on it before Jake entered in a code and then another string of numbers: 10:00. Jake checked his watch and was about to hit execute when he saw a shadow moving in the background. The scientist quick drew his Long Colt and fired at it, but the shadow avoided it and suddenly moved towards him at high speed. Jake shot a couple of rounds before the shadow was upon him. The embittered scientist took out a grenade and was about to pull the pin when an object emerged from the shadow and looked at him bemused.

"Oh for God's sake," said Jake disgusted. Jeffrey looked at him with a grin.

"Always with you it cannot be done," he said shaking his head.

"Will you get lost? I'm trying to blow up a building here," said Jake wiping off the sweat from his forehead.

"Yeah I'll bet," said Jeffrey looking at the timer device.

"So what do you want?" asked Jake.

"Just came to say goodbye," said Jeffrey.

"I thought you already said goodbye," said Jake as he made sure all the connections were tight.

"Well this time it's for good," said Jeffrey. "Sorna is soon to become a thing of the past, no pun and intended, and with your growing hatred you're going to leave Ingen behind forever and that'll be the end of me. You'll finally have forgotten the past."

"Doubtful," said Jake looking past the genetic sequencers and at the various dino carcasses that were strung up like dried meat.

"Somehow I think I'll always be battling my demons of the past," Jake observed.

"Probably," Jeffrey conceded. "But I guess you can't win them all."

"Is there something you want?" asked Jake annoyed. "I'd kind like to get out of here and not be stranded on this island."

"There is something I want. I want you to hit me as hard as you can," said Jeffrey.

"What?" demanded Jake.

"Heh, just kidding," said Jeffrey laughing. "No I just came to say that…I'm glad you didn't listen to me."

"You're the worst conscience I've ever heard," said Jake as he grabbed a nearby suitcase filled with C-4 and another timer and set it on the table.

"I'm your conscience, what's that say?" Jeffrey shot back.

"Beats me," said Jake as he hit the execute button and headed for the door.

"Yeah so thanks for not listening to me," said Jeffrey following him. "As a result of fighting this threat, you finally managed to realize why you were really fighting it."

"So I was supposed to let them be killed and maimed, just not delude myself into doing it for your sake?" asked Jake. Jeffrey nodded.

"That's about it really," said Jeffrey. "I told you before I can't let you continue this self-destructive course of destruction in my name."

"Did you say that?" asked Jake confused.

"Well that was ultimately the point," said Jeffrey. Jake shook his head in humility.

"Okay," Jake said confused. "Well…thanks…I guess."

"Yeah don't let it get to your head. Yeesh, you have the worse conscience I've ever heard," said Jeffrey shaking his head in shame. "Well see you around J."

"Cool," said Jake as he held out his fist and both rapped knuckles before Jeffrey faded away and Jake breathed a sigh of relief. But then he became all business as he tried to figure out what to do with the raptors, especially with the clock winding down on him. Jake took out his Long Colt and checked how many shots he had left before snapping the barrel shut.

"Oh hell the time for planning is over," said Jake as he yanked out a second Long Colt, this one entirely black and readied both of them. He shook loose the cobwebs and ran straight to the door where the two raptors were waiting for him, claws outstretched. Jake opened fire with both guns and the raptors went down in a hail of bullets before Jake holstered his silver Long Colt and grabbed the suitcase before bolting for the entrance. He ran out the door and into the blinding rain as more flashes of lighting went flying by overhead. As Jake made his way down to the hummer, a cadre of dinosaurs slowly emerged from the jungle dripping wet, roaring at him angrily. Jake quickly put the suitcase in the back of the hummer before taking out his second Long Colt and holding both out at arm's length away from his body while staring at the dinosaurs.

"My quarrel is not with you guys! Now back away, just leave me in peace!" yelled Jake as he pressed a release on the gun causing the top part of the guns to swing upwards revealing the mini-laser cannons inside. The dinos continued advancing.

"Shit," said Jake as he prepared to pull the triggers when suddenly the trees shifted and the last Carnosaur appeared, apparently having survived its ordeal with lysine depravation. Jake eyed it with hesitancy as the massive beast stared right back at him before the Carnosaur turned on the other dinosaurs and began taking them out left and right. Jake just ran for his vehicle and got in before slamming the door and locking it shut as a gob of dilophosaur venom hit the side windshield.

"Yikes," said Jake as he gunned the engine and threw the vehicle in reverse where it smashed into a very juvenile t-rex, throwing it off of its feet and into a cluster of pachycephalosaurs, before tearing off away from the dinos with them in hot pursuit.

"God, how can this day get any worse?" asked Jake when suddenly the Hammond Research Center exploded flinging dinos everywhere and lifting the hummer off of its wheel and propelling it forward.

"I had to ask," said Jake as the ground came hurtling right at him through the windshield.

Village: "That ungrateful son of a-!" began Henry as he grabbed the gland off of the medical scanner and flung it away in disgust where it slapped against a wall leaving a trail of blood behind. Henry quickly sat down and then arched his bloodied gloves in front of his face as he pondered their current situation.

"He circumvented it huh?" asked Gerry reading the resulting printout sheet.

"Yes," said Henry annoyed as he propped his legs up on the desk he was sitting in front of before removing his gloves and clasping his hands behind his head.

"How do you think he did it?" asked Gerry as he sat on the edge of the desk.

"I don't know," said Henry helpless. "But it must've been after we created the code but before the strands were used for ostrich egg implantation and fertilization."

"You don't think combining the dino/frog DNA with the ostrich egg might have caused this?" asked Logan trying to understand the data but failing miserably.

"And conveniently creating a lysine producing gland?" asked Henry incredulously. "What're the odds of that happening? No, this was deliberate and somehow Hammond expected Jake and me to never notice. I guess Jake was right about Hammond all along, profit before everything else."

"Yikes," said Gerry tossing the stack of paper onto the table. "So are you going to tell Jake?"

"Might as well, though nobody else ever will," said Henry before he took out a lighter and lit the stack on fire before tossing it into a wastebasket before picking up the gland and tossing that in as well.

"Why? You could use this to accuse Hammond of incompetence," said Logan confused.

"Yeah but in the meantime the whole world dissolves into chaos over the fact that mankind is no longer the dominate species on this Earth," said Henry rubbing his temples.

"So what do we do when they start leaving this island and actually make it to the mainland?" asked Logan.

"A-1 'em," said Henry with Gerry nodding.

"What's that?" asked Logan confused.

"Don't worry about it," said Henry getting up. "Right now we need to evacuate."

Gerry nodded consulting his watch.

"Fifteen minutes," he said. "Clarissa should be making landfall any moment now and then it'll take her a little bit in order to actual reach this far inland."

"Wait if she's Category 5 then how come the effects we're feeling aren't worse than this?" asked Logan confused.

"It's because of our location. Since we're in a basin most of the truly damaging winds are flying right above our heads, but once the actual hurricane hits this place it is history," said Gerry. "And if Jake is not back, we're going to have to leave without him."

"Let's try and hold as long as we can then," said Henry. "The last thing we need is a casualty on ours hands just moments before complete evacuation."

"I'll get Jake on the radio," said Gerry leaving with Henry and Logan in pursuit as the door closed automatically behind them. They trio advanced outside as lightning cracked overhead and the rain began coming down in all directions. The wind was battering all the trees everywhere and many began falling on the electrified fences causing sparks to go flying. Henry took Gerry's radio from him and flipped it on but a massive thunderclap drowned out the first part of his statement into the radio.

"That is correct we are evacuating Isla Sorna!" shouted Wu over the radio as he ran across the street in the Workers Village. A pair of helicopters roared by overhead shining some light on the area as they roared off taking Ingen Personnel with them as still more rushed through the Village grabbing whatever they could before running to the Main Building and boarding the helicopters that were constantly flying in and taking off.

"Jake? Where the hell are you?" Henry demanded over the radio.

Roadway: The hummer raced down the road with the army of dinosaurs right on his tail as he passed checkpoint after abandoned checkpoint.

"I'm just taking care of some loose ends," he said cryptically into the radio before looking in the rearview mirror and shuddering.

"There's no time, Hurricane Clarissa is going to smash into this island any moment now!" Henry shouted over his end.

"Yeah will this is important," Jake lied. "Okay I'm done."

"Get your ass down here! We're leaving in five minutes!" shouted Henry before a massive dinosaur erupted over the radio and the line went dead.

"I'm coming Henry, I'm coming," said Jake as he gritted his teeth together while slamming down on the accelerator. The vehicle leapt forward but this time the dinos would not be denied as they continued their hot pursuit. In the distance Jake could just make out the bright lights of the Workers Village and one lone helicopter on the roof of the Operations Building preparing to take off. A lightning bolt struck behind him vaporizing a pair of dinosaurs as Jake surged into the Workers Village.

"Ha! Ha!" he shouted triumphantly when another bolt smashed into the ground next to his vehicle flinging it into the air and onto its roof. Jake quickly unbuckled himself and kicked out the driver door before running down the street as large shadows appeared over the perimeter fence of the village. Jake looked behind him in shock.

"Oh my God," he said. All the dinosaurs on the island were surrounding the fence as though the inside was the last sanctuary on the island, but their expressions were one of blood rage. Carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores all crashed through the fences together and began steadily advancing on the final helicopter. Jake barely made into the building before a team of raptors crashed through the doors with a pair of dilophosaurs. Jake swung up the rifle he'd had strapped to his back and began firing at the creatures and managed to kill a pair of them before one slammed into him causing the suitcase to go sliding away. Jake scowled at the loss of the thing, but ultimately ran towards the stairs leading up the helipad. One of the raptors leapt at him, but Jake managed to slam the door shut and it locked as the raptor crashed into it causing glass to fly everywhere. Jake brushed it off him as well as some blood on his lips as he ran up to the helicopter as one of the raptors kicked the door in and the team rushed up the steps only to be confronted by the blinding wind of the helicopter as it took off into the sky. The raptors angrily leapt up after it but to no avail as they couldn't reach the rapidly escaping vehicle. The dinosaurs down below, Spinosaur, Brachiosaur, Tyrannosaurs Rex, all roared at the departing helicopter in pain and anger. Then they all parted ways as the light disappeared and the hurricane slammed into the island causing severe damage to the entire place. The helicopter meanwhile was briefly battered by the hurricane force winds before escaping into lighter gusts while behind them they saw the destruction of everything they had accomplished. Some felt saddened, others sick, others grateful, and at least one angry.

"_Damn Dinosaurs_," Jake thought bitterly. "_You've taken away from me the one thing I swore you'd never get. But I will be back and I will reclaim this island and I'll be damned if you say different._"

Henry sat down next to him. "Everything will be fine huh?"

"We'll see Henry, we'll see," said Jake exhausted. He laid his back on the cold metal of the helicopter and fell asleep as the vehicles departed Sorna as Hurricane Clarissa tore it to pieces and transforming Site B into a Lost World.


	26. Endgame

Anguirus111 Note: I may come back and write a story that takes place between War of the Worlds and Demons of the Past that shows what Pacific Pharmaceuticals was up to and Ingen's final declaration of bankruptcy. It would also feature 'deleted scenes' from The Lost World and Jurassic Park III where various members discover remnant of what happened in War of the Worlds. And then I would write a final story involving a sequel to Demons of the Past where Sorna is finally reclaimed by Pacific Pharmaceuticals. But I don't know yet we'll see. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story and I hope others write about what happened on Sorna prior to its fall, I'll look forward to reading them.

Hammond's Loft: The doorbell rang and the butler went and answered it.

"Jake Whitacre," came the embittered response. "I'm butting in."

The butler was about to call the police when John Hammond appeared in the background hobbling on his cane.

"Its okay, let him in," the CEO rasped and the butler nodded and opened the door as Hammond returned to his room and Jake came in, exhausted with blood-shot eyes, while having his clothes still soaked from leaving Sorna just a few hours earlier. Jake glanced at the butler annoyed before walking into the foyer dripping water everywhere as his shoes squished with every step he took. The butler looked like he was about to faint at the trail of water but quickly resolved himself and headed to go find a mop. Jake meanwhile entered into Hammond's study where he found the entrepreneur sitting on his bed.

"You're not looking too hot Jimmy," said Jake as he sat on John's desk all the way across the room from him.

"It's been a trying six months," said Hammond.

"I'll bet," said Jake harshly as he crossed his arms. "I can imagine what it's like to loose you're almost like descending into hell. Course I wouldn't that feels like, I was just left on an island full of dinosaurs that got loose and tried to kill me."

Hammond shook his head in sadness.

"I'm sorry," said Hammond. "I did not intend for any of this to happen."

"None of us intended for Nublar and Sorna to collapse, but they did anyway. But that doesn't excuse the fact that you abandoned us on that island," said Jake irate. "You left us there to die!"

"I did not!" Hammond protested. "It was always my intention to get you and the rest of the personnel on that island off of there!"

"When?" demanded Jake. "When we were all dead? When we could no longer sue? When John?"

"I don't know," Hammond blurted out beginning to feel angry at Jake's accusations. "But I would have!"

"No you wouldn't. The only thing you care about is Ingen, that's why you're an entrepreneur. Entrepeneur's are willing to let others die so that their creation might live. That is what you did to us out there. You were willing to let us die so that your grand scheme of bringing dinosaurs back and that is exactly what happened," said Jake darkly. "We lost thirty-two workers on that island John after you left us to fend for ourselves. Those workers aren't coming back because you condemned them to die for your…vision."

Jake spat out the last word before wiping his mouth with his wet sleeve, he'd wanted to say something more harsh but couldn't bring himself to say it with Hammond's ailing condition.

"You are just as responsible as me for what happened out there!" Hammond roared. "Do I need to forget you about what your position here is?"

Jake glared at him. "You think I don't know that? Every dinosaur created on both islands bears my mark of approval. And I beat myself up every day for Jeffrey's death, but at least I acknowledge it happened. You're never going to admit what happened on that island. Those workers families are never going to know the truth about what happened to their loved ones. All they're going to know is a check in the mail and that's it. Take responsible for your actions John because nobody else will or can."

"At any rate," said Hammond. "At least this 'Lost World' of yours will now provide us with an unequaled opportunity to watch the dinosaurs alive and in their natural habitats."

Jake's body began trembling on that statement and he glared at Hammond with pure rage.

"You will never refer to that island as a Lost World in my presence ever again!" Jake said coldly. "That island has a name and its name is Sorna, Ingen BioEngineering's Site B. That island has a tainted legacy that no amount of covering up will permanently erase."

"And why do you say that?" asked Hammond smugly.

"Because you overrode the lysine contingency," said Jake. "And it will be the dinosaurs that will be the ultimate legacy of that island."

Hammond just looked at him but said nothing.

"Do you realize that you've doomed the entire world by making those dinos lysine-free?" asked Jake. "They can breed, I know that you know this, and now the lysine contingency is gone. Once those dinos leave that island, it's all over for humanity."

"We don't know that," said Hammond.

"A-1 Johnny of have you chosen to forget that little incident?" asked Jake. "A-1 is no longer a precedent, but a beginning of the end. You know what my original moniker was for that Deinonychosaur before you changed it for the official records right?"

Hammond nodded sharply. "Alpha Omega One."

"That's right," said Jake nodding. "But soon it's going to be joined by countless other species. John Brown recently informed me that dead dinosaur carcasses have begun to wash up on Costa Rica's shore. That's only the beginning because soon they'll be making the shoreline, then the jungles, then the cities, and then who knows where? Only a strike force to annihilate that island is going to stop this. So what're you going to do?"

"Nothing, absolutely nothing," said Hammond.

"I suspected as much Johnny-boy," said Jake crossing his arms. "And now you've doomed us all."

"I don't think so. I think you're overreacting. I think you've been blinded by your hatred towards these things," said Hammond convinced.

"I don't hate them John, not anymore. They aren't to be blamed for what happened on Nublar or Sorna," said Jake. "The dinosaurs are not the only monsters on Isla Sorna."

"And what else is there?" asked Hammond smugly.

"Us," said Jake simply. Hammond's smile faded and he broke out into a growl.

"Then that is going to make our working relationship very difficult to manage," said Hammond.

"There is no more 'us' John. I've had with this company and I've had it with you. You're going run this company into the ground, I know that, and when you do I'll be waiting," said Jake preparing to leave.

"To do what?" asked Hammond confused.

"To take back Sorna and reclaim Site B from that Lost World once and for all," said Jake as he headed for the door.

"I didn't dismiss you!" shouted Hammond. Jake turned to face him.

"It's over John," said Jake bitterly. "The dream is gone, I quit."

With that Jake Whitacreripped off his lanyard that had his Ingen Keycard attached to it and tossed it in the trash and with that he was gone. Hammond walked over to the trashcan and picked up the keycard cradling it in his hands and with that he began to weep.

End.


End file.
